Short stay platforms expected to collect the tax are still unsure in how the new platform will work, with the tax applying to all bookings made after January 1, 2025.
Victoria Tourism industry Council (VTIC) CEO Felicia Mariani said the biggest issue since the tax was announced was the lack of engagement and consultation with industry.
“Industry is imploring government to consult with us, engage with us, and then we can create and implement systems that work for all of us and achieve the outcome government is looking for without destroying an industry in the process,” she said.
“There’s only three months now to figure out how this tax is going to work in practice and the government is relying on the short stay systems to make changes in their systems they don’t have capacity for.
“On top of that, industry is now in a terribly exposed position as local councils have been given a green light to slap an additional tax on top of what is already in place, meaning this could end up being a 15 or 20 per cent tax in reality, or more.”
Ms Mariani pointed to Western Australia, which has created an incentive scheme offering $10,000 to property owners who move their holiday rentals to long term accommodation.
The scheme has already received 200 owners registering interest and with such a successful take up, the WA government is now offering a $5,000 incentive to turn vacant homes into long term rental housing.
“The Victorian Government should be looking at WA for inspiration because they are showing better results in generating long term rental housing for residents,” Ms Mariani said.
“The Victorian Government expects to generate $60 million from the short stay accommodation tax which, even if you rely on a conservative estimate of $400,000 to build a home, will only build up to 150 houses and that is without the maintenance costs to go to existing houses.
The incentive from WA has already garnered more housing than that and they haven’t built a single thing.”
No comments:
Post a Comment