July 2015

The council argues that property owners have become Australia's largest collective taxpayer contributing 9 per cent of total tax revenue. Property taxes make up as much as 46 per cent of state, territory and local government budgets. Stamp duty alone contributes more than 20 per cent of the total revenues of the NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Northern Territory governments.

It highlights that state governments have been forced to rely on stamp duty as a source of revenue because the GST has been left untouched since its introduction in 1999, pointing out that Australia's GST rate of 10 per cent is "substantially lower" than New Zealand's consumption tax rate of 15 per cent.

State and territory governments would need a replacement stream of income if stamp duty were to be abolished, the council said, and the "most logical option" would be either increasing the rate of GST or broadening its base.