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this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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Yeah I just saw that. I'm curious about it though, because the Guardian article described it as an "Australian-first". It's not clear to me what the levy is on.
But in Brisbane City Council, we've had a 50% increase to rates for short term accommodation since last financial year, up to 65% this year. That's a much bigger number than 7.5%.
I'm assuming rates are the council rates (the ~$2000 you pay yearly if you own a property), while the Victoria tax is a tax on the actual income you make on the rental property?
Okay I did a little more searching, and the ABC article about it seems a little more clear. They say:
So basically as you say, except instead of being "a tax on the...income you make", it's a tax on the company's revenue. Sounds good for revenue-raising purposes, but unless it drives Airbnb to increase the percent they take as a cut from houses that rent through them, it won't have any direct impact on the choice of a property owner, since their revenue is unaffected. Of course, that wording is just ambiguous enough that it could still be a form of extra income tax, which would feel weird since that's typically a federal responsibility.
Really, any of those ideas is conceivable. And I'm not sure if the lack of clarity is because of poor communication from the news organisations, poor communication from the Government itself, or if it's because the plan is only in the early stages and the Government doesn't actually know how it would be implemented yet.