SHOW ’EM WHO’S BOSS
IN OUR April issue, we broke the story of XBOSS owner Chris Bitmead’s fight with the WA State Government over a stamp duty claim. Chris originally purchased his Falcon coupe (which he would then make into a stunning SMOTY winner) for $8990, and paid the highest listed Redbook value of $15,500 in stamp duty. The WA Office of State Revenue subsequently accused Chris of undervaluing the car, hitting him with a bill of almost $34,000. After appealing the ruling, he clawed around $25,000 back. Here’s what you had to say about the situation on our Facebook page.
Colin Daw – Stamp duty should only ever be paid once – that’s when it is first bought new. End of story.
Rohan Mclachlan – Good work Chris. There is definitely an issue between the purchase price and insured value once the car has been restored.
Craig Purton – Revenue raising is the government’s only interest, whether it’s right or wrong. It’s extremely amateurish.
Robert Adams – What a load of BS. When you buy an old car, that’s what it is worth at the time you go to rego it, regardless of how much money you have spent to restore it. I have quite a few receipts for $50 cars that will be built and put back on the road.
Hotmods Steve – Same happened to my dad with his XY. He bought it for $8K and they charged him almost two grand after he fixed it up in Victoria.
David Barnsley – What about a refund then, as I paid $20,000 for my last car but when I sold it I only got 10 grand for it. Where is my stamp duty refund?
Nathan Fehlberg – Money-grabbing at its best.
Daniel Reading – Stamp duty is a total scam – just thieving mongrels putting their hands into our pockets at every opportunity.
Mick Longobardi – You should pay stamp duty on the purchase price. Because everything you put into the car from then on is taxed anyway, so they are getting what’s rightfully owed.
Jason Holdens – Welcome to my nightmare. I restored an HQ coupe and now have a $15K bill four years after selling the car. Talk about pissed!
Michael Gray – Jesus Christ! Hopefully they can lobby successfully to change this. For the average street machiner who’s afforded their car build by spreading out the cost over several years of building it, this situation would be totally unaffordable. Seems like a pretty low swipe at people for the government to be charging using this system.
Matthew Auger – Should you take a bunch of photos of the car when getting it registered and put them in a stat dec, so that years down the track when it is restored or done up, the government can’t chase you for more stamp duty?
Don Bentley – The Queensland Government is doing the same using insurance value and backdating the bill for hot rods as well as classics.
David Tomek – You’d think the government would understand the difference between value and replacement cost.
Mauricio Bassaletti – Lesson learnt there. Get the car registered ASAP without the bells and whistles prior to restoration. Or, get the hell out of WA.
Pieter Raas – People don’t mind a few hundred dollars to do paperwork, but not $10K to type some letters and numbers.
Brett Mac – The stamps must cost a fortune.