Gift duty’s end helps ‘save our farms’

Federated Farmers is applauding the Government’s decision to abolish the gift duty tax.

Economics and commerce spokesperson Philip York says the decision will help ‘save our farms’ by smoothing farm succession.

“Abolishing gift duty has been one of the longest held policy objectives of Federated Farmers,” Mr York says.

“It’s been something like a 42-year slog for us against this envy tax. While Government deserves a bouquet for this, so to do all of our staff and elected members who over decades, have kept the pressure on.

“Because it can take decades to gift a farm from parents to their children, farm succession, rather than land prices, is a major factor if we are to farm for generations.

“Yet gift duty itself is one example of poor regulation we’d avoid if we had a Regulatory Responsibility Bill in place.

“After the costs of administering it were deducted, gift duty only brought in around $750,000 a year. But it made taxpayers spend $70 million a year on lawyers and accountants to get around it, as long as time was on their side.”