I call them ‘Puffy Pants Taxes’, after The Simpsons’ oily, venal, Mayor Quimby:
“The, uh, city has just passed another tax on puffy directing pants.”
“But I don’t wear puffy pants!”
“I meant a tax on not wearing puffy pants.”
When Quimby’s governmental greed eventually drives the production out of town, he also slugs them with a Leaving Town tax.
Australia’s socialist Labor governments are making Mayor Quimby look like Ayn Rand. One of the most eye-opening proposals from PM Albanese’s ‘productivity round table’ (appropriately round, the better to facilitate this lefty circle-jerk) is a “bold plan” to tax the nation’s spare bedrooms.
Cotality head of Australian research, Eliza Owen, said questions are being raised about “how well the housing market is serving real demand”.
“While there’s nothing wrong with more bedrooms than people in a dwelling, there could be some inefficiencies in the way housing is being allocated,” she said.
Ms Owen suggested a tax could help people move into housing that fits their size, but understood it would not be favourable for anyone.
“Governments could make it more expensive to have more housing than you need and cheaper to live in smaller housing,” she said.
And who is she to say how much housing anyone else needs?
This is yet another assault on Australians’ property rights.
Every citizen owns their property: within that domain lies the unquestionable right to enjoy its fruits – or idleness – without interference. A tax on spare bedrooms is just a step away from penalising ownership itself. If the state may levy fees upon unused space, where will the line be drawn? Lofts? Garden sheds? ‘That’s a nice little empty cupboard you ’ave there – be a shame if someone were to tax it.’
As leftists will, the only way these people can think is in terms of punitive taxation, or as we’d call it if anyone but the state did it – extortion. It apparently never occurs to them to lift the tax burden or otherwise loosen the suffocating nanny apron strings of red tape.
For instance, many of the spare-room havers they’re so keen to extort more money from are empty nesters, who besides preferring not to abandon the homes where they raised their families, are hamstrung by taxes, like the stamp duty and pension asset-test hurdles that currently besiege downsizers.
On the other hand, QUT economist Dr Lyndall Bryant proposes incentivising older homeowners to offer spare rooms while ensuring their pension integrity remains intact. Straightforward tax‑free renting of spare rooms or granny flats, for instance.
People aren’t as stupid as politicians, though. Should any government try on this ‘empty room’ tax, watch how quickly craft rooms, guest rooms and home offices proliferate.
Ah, but if you have a home office, they’ll slug you for working from home, too.
Proposed laws to enshrine working from home could allow the state government to hit Victorians with another tax, experts warn.
Jacinta Allan’s contentious new legislation, to make working from home a guaranteed right, could see Victorians face land tax bills if they take up the offer on a permanent basis.
Homeowners are currently exempt from the tax on a primary place of residence, but the exemption doesn’t apply where “substantial business activity” is being carried out from the home.
Tax experts say permanent working from home arrangements could trigger the tax for workers, especially freelancers or contractors.
And if you sit on your office chair, they’ll tax your seat. If you take a walk, they’ll tax your feet.
They’re already taxing us for the heat.
