I call on Tony Abbott and the Liberal-National Party to rule out a plan to impose the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the rents of mobile-home residents.
This is after a surprise ruling last week by the Australian Taxation Office overturning a decision by the Howard government in 2000 to exempt mobile-home residents from the 10 per cent GST.
This plan is devastating for the thousands of locals who live in the numerous mobile homes parks and simply cannot afford a 10 per cent increase in their rents.
It is an attack on the nation’s most vulnerable, particularly pensioners who are already struggling with cost of living pressures and can’t afford this rent hike.
On July 1, 2000, when the GST was introduced, moveable home estates (mobile-home parks) were deemed residential premises and therefore exempt from GST.
However, on 30 October 2013 the Australian Taxation Office released a plan stating that these moveable home estates would no longer be considered residential premises and therefore are not exempt from GST.
Mr Abbott and his government should act immediately to rule out this unfair plan.
Justine Elliot, Member for Richmond
This gst is another extra burden on the pensioners of Australia. Surely the ATO can find some other way to raise revenue. Leave us along.
My discussions with the ATO is not whether the GST should be applied across the board in relation to all residential parks but about whether the new purpose built residential park homes can be classed as “movable” as per tax law although the industry terminology is “relocatable”. A rose by another name if you like and this seems to be the sticking point, Are the homes now being built in the purpose built residential parks really relocatable?
Well in comparison to the typical suburban home yes they are relocatable. That said, home owners living in these modern parks who have paid between $300,000 and $650,000 for their home rightly reject the idea that they have purchased and live in a relocatable home. It is imperative that we home owners living in modern residential parks accept that all man made edifices are movable and none are permanently attached to the land because we cant actually attach anything to land. We can sit buildings on it and we place building in it but no physical attachment can be made. Example, if we pitch a tent and tie the ropes to pegs in the ground the ropes are attached to the pegs, the pegs are driven into the ground, they are not attached to land in reality.
David Paton
I’ve started an online petition about this. Please see:
http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/stop-proposal-to-apply-gst-to-retirement-villages-and-mobile-home-sites
It’s easy to sign!