State treasurers urge GST reform
August 25th, 2011 | by Savannah Fuhrman | 
STATE treasurers are staring down the Gillard Government’s push to dump stamp duties on property sales and other inefficient state taxes at the October tax summit, declaring such moves impossible unless the GST is reformed.
Tasmanian Premier and Treasurer Lara Giddings said she expected the GST ” to be part of this conversation” about the states reforming inefficient taxes, reported The Australian.
Wayne Swan has ruled out changes to the base or rate of the GST and left it off the summit agenda.
“It is unfortunate that the GST is not on the agenda because it provides an efficient source to replace revenue lost through the reduction of inefficient state taxes,” Ms Giddings told The Australian.
“In fact this approach has already proven itself when states originally signed up to the GST and agreed to abolish a range of other taxes.”
Ms Giddings vowed to use October’s tax forum to push for national leadership on state tax reform “and we would expect GST to be part of this conversation”.
Canberra has flagged that it wants the summit to consider replacing stamp duties on property sales with reformed land tax and to consider scrapping insurance taxes.
The Henry tax review concluded that state taxes were some of the most inefficient levied in Australia.
Read more about the states’ push for GST reform at The Australian.
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Tags: State Treasurers, Treasurers