We residents of a Gold Coast highrise are now subject to the new high rise apartment tax which means an increase of council rates of up to 50 percent.
The rationale is that higher floors and penthouses are full of well healed types lying on their banana lounges, half asleep and dreaming of how they intend spending their spare loot. Let’s tax these rich, idle dudes, the council seems to be saying.
The reality is that many Gold Coast high-rises are owned by seniors and pensioners and they are rented by migrants and students attending any of the three local university campuses and TAFE.
It’s odds on that investor owners will simply pass on the rate increases to them and renters will be slugged again.
The council argues that it’s unfair that an apartment on the top floor with a sensational view is rated the same as an identical apartment on the ground floor. It argues that the top floor apartment is worth more money, so it should incur higher rates.
However, some apartment owners on high floors may have a lousy view. They may overlook an industrial estate or a busy highway or be situated next to another high rise where their view is someone’s kitchen or lounge.
Those apartments will be slugged the same surcharge as other apartments on the same floor, but their apartment is worth less due to their lousy view.
We could quite granular about this. What about different rates for different views? Is a view of the ocean worthy of being taxed more than one of the Gold Coast hinterland? What if one apartment enjoys a 180-degree panorama, and another just a 10 percent view? What if you face east and enjoy beautiful sunrises? Should you pay more? Maybe a different rate for facing south and facing north (more sunny days) because it attracts more prospective purchasers and a higher price?
In the end, this “view tax” is as arbitrary as the “window tax” introduced by William III in England and Wales in 1696, and by Napoleon Bonaparte in France and the annexed Netherlands in the early 1800s, as a massive revenue raising measure for his wars.
The window tax applied to the area of windows and, in some instances, the number of doors in your home. But it began to be abolished in the 1850s when people were getting ill due to poor ventilation in mouldy houses with their windows boarded up to avoid the tax.
Yes, some legislators were wiser then than now. Sadly, 170 years later, some bright spark has seen value returning to a discriminatory tax that’s not unlike that window tax. Instead of being taxed for what you look through, you are taxed for what you look at.
The council should reconsider this as a half-baked idea.
How can you increase rates for a view these appartment have been built for 13 years this is just a money grab what a joke