Sunday 20 July 2014

Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan skites away again


Slipped into letter boxes in the Page electorate in the first half of this year was a leaflet from Nationals MP Kevin Hogan.

In this leaflet Mr. Hogan listed under Kevin Getting The Job Done the fact that he Stopped GST on moveable homes. Reducing the cost of living.

Er, no it was not just your letter Mr. Hogan which saw the Australian Tax Office back down.

It was the Affiliated Residential Park Residents Association (ARPRA) who first went to the media and, it was ordinary people power (combined with the efforts of Jill Hall, Justine Elliot, Joanne Ryan and other Labor MPs) which first placed pressure on the Tax Office.

Aside from the fact that the Tax Office's 20 October 2013 draft ruling concerning GST and moveable homes had invited submissions and that offer was taken up.

By 20 December the ATO draft ruling had been withdrawn and Echo NetDaily was reporting that:

‘Over the past seven weeks, we have been considering a range of submissions from the community and stakeholders as part of our consultation process,’ tax commissioner Chris Jordan said.
‘We have carefully considered the legal arguments and practical implications and decided that we don’t need to change the existing GST treatment of these estates,’ he added.
‘With the benefit of submissions, it is evident that while moveable-home estates have changed, they are still similar enough to caravan parks to receive the concessional treatment. In particular, both involve letting of sites separately to the building, and provide communal facilities to residents.

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