6th June 2006 
 
The Institute of Chartered Accountants welcomes the changes to land tax; family held unit trusts and the decision to invest into public infrastructure, health and education, but would have liked to have seen more fundamental tax reform.  
 
The Institute’s New South Wales General Manager, Lisette Cochineas said she had hoped to see further moves towards meaningful tax reform such as the NSW Government taking a reasonably revenue neutral step towards the standardisation of certain aspects of federal and state taxes.  
 
“While I understand the need to wait for major tax reforms, considering the budget deficit recently handed down, it would have been advantageous if the NSW Government had made a commitment to working with the other states and the federal government to standardise, at least some aspects of federal and state taxes, including consistency of certain definitions across tax legislation,” Ms Cochineas said.  
 
“An example of standardisation, would include the definition of ‘salary’ and ‘wages’ differs across the country despite the fact it is it is used by business as the basis for calculating liability for pay-roll tax, workers compensation, PAYG withholding and superannuation,” she said  
 
“The Institute is concerned that employers may be following the legislative requirements correctly in one state, but breaching the legislation in another state by assuming that the definition is consistent across all jurisdictions.”  
 
“Changes are required to Australia’s indirect tax system to ensure certainty, simplicity, fairness and lower costs of compliance to all taxpayers,” she said.  
 
The Institute also welcomes the State Government’s proposal to abolish stamp duty on the hire of goods (from 1 July 2007), leases (from 1 January 2008), unlisted marketable securities (from 1 January 2009), mortgage and loan securities (half abolished from 1 January 2010 and other half from 1 January 1011) and non-residential property transfers (from 1 July 2012) as part of the InterGovernmental Agreement.  
 
“While the Institute supports the Government’s move to abolish these taxes, it is believed that these measures are long overdue and the timeframe too long, considering that the introduction of the GST was intended to negate the need for these sorts of taxes,” Ms Cochineas said.  
 
“Not only will the abolition of these taxes remove a financial burden on taxpayers, but it will alleviate the administrative burden on taxpayers by reducing the number of transactions that need to be assessed for stamp duty consequences,” she said.  
 
The Institute will continue to lobby for further reform including the following:  

• The standardisation of administration across taxes and jurisdictions
 

• The abolishment of stamp duties identified for removal under the Intergovernmental Agreement and
 

• The eventual abolition of payroll tax