Hundreds of people across NSW are now being hit with a surcharge tax just for living in the state.
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In 2016 legislation was passed to create a land surcharge tax for foreign owners.
And now many people, including two Berrima residents, have been caught up in this new tax as 410 retirement visa holders.
The surcharge started at 0.75 per cent and has since risen to two per cent.
One of the Berrima resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said he and his wife were concerned.
“All the government has to do is bump it up and bump it up,” he said.
The pair has lived in the Highlands for 15 years and under the wording of the legislation, 410 visa holders are classified as foreigners.
He said the surcharge tax has also been introduced in Victoria and Queensland, but only applied to people who own properties in Australia but do not reside there.
“We are foreigners, we have to accept that but we’ve lived here for a sufficient length of time to warrant being Australians,” the Berrima resident said.
“If I was to be assessed now it would be about $14,000 which I don’t want to have to pay.”
These Highlands residents along with the hundreds affected across NSW have spent the past two years writing letters to countless government representatives, asking them to consider an amendment to the legislation.
British Expatriate Retirees in Australia (BERIA) NSW coordinator Ed Cowie has been at the forefront of this campaign.
In the past several weeks he has sent more than 130 letters to every MP in the NSW Parliament.
“I’ve had quite a few responses that said they agreed this legislation was not intended to catch people on a retirement visa and they would forward them to the finance minister asking them...to make an amendment,” Mr Cowie said.
Another issue BERIA remains concerned about is the eight per cent surcharge on stamp duty which also applies to 410 visa holders in this state.
In a letter sent to several government ministers and shadow ministers, Mr Cowie said these two surcharges which amounted to “tens of thousands of dollars, was resulting in much hardship”.
“Several of our group are being forced to leave family and friends behind and relocate to their original country.”
He recently had correspondence from NSW Finance Minister Victor Dominello’s office which said the minister wanted to organise a meeting between his policy adviser and an executive from the Office of State Revenue and Mr Cowie.
“It’s a fairly significant development - a face to face meeting,” Mr Cowie said.
“It [surcharge tax] is not a small thing for us.”
The meeting took place last week on May 2 at Parliament House in Sydney with Olivia Roth (finance minister’s policy adviser) and Cullen Smythe (commissioner of state revenue).
Mr Cowie said two key points came out of the meeting.
“Mr Smythe confirmed that the State Revenue Department was responsible for implementing and administering policy and that it was the treasury that had the responsibility and power to establish and/or change policy through legislation,” he said.
“Ms Roth confirmed she would be writing to the policy adviser to the treasurer recommending they meet with me to discuss the issue as soon as possible and I have since received a copy of an email with this request.”
While this is one battle Mr Cowie and BERIA will continue to fight, he said the overarching issue for the people affected was getting permanent residency as the 410 visa was no longer open to new applicants.
“If that was solved it would eliminate the other problems. We’ll just have to keep on shouting.”