Jenny Lee, Hasting Lai and Alison Kenny discuss highlights of the Western Australia Budget 2019-20.
On 9 May 2019, the Western Australia Treasurer, Ben Wyatt, delivered the 2019-20 Western Australia State Budget. Whilst this Budget will be the first budget surplus in 5 years, only a small number of changes to payroll tax, fees, tariffs and charges have been proposed. Notably, this Budget does not include any changes to the stamp duties and land tax regime which is not surprising given the significant changes recently introduced by the Revenue Laws Amendment Bill 2018.
This Budget focuses on delivering funding to infrastructure projects, creating jobs, spending on health and education and providing relief to low income individuals and families as well as turning around the deficit of the previous government – areas which the Western Australia Government pledged to deliver on.
The key revenue measures and highlights announced in this Budget include:
The Budget forecasts a decline in revenue from land tax and stamp duty in 2019-20 due to a decrease in taxable land values and property transactions. However, this is expected to be offset by $80 million stamp duty revenue from the Foreign Buyers Surcharge.
The Revenue Laws Amendment Bill 2018 containing a plethora of state tax amendments in November 2018 has now been passed and is awaiting Royal Assent. Some of the key changes include:
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