BIA REJECTS PROPOSED BOAT TAX

Australia’s Boating Industry Association (BIA) says the NSW Labour Party’s proposed policy to tax new and second-hand recreational boats will bring further hardship on an industry still recovering from the GFC and punish hardworking boaters and retirees.

“We were surprised by Labour’s announcement to tax boat owners,” said BIA president Alan Blake. “The tax will drive sales and jobs away from NSW to other states and sadly, the perception that boats over the value of $200,000 is a tax on the wealthy is fundamentally wrong.

“Many vessels of that value are owned by families, retirees, groups of hard-working, hard-saving mates who have grouped their savings to pursue their passion for being outdoors, or those who have joined in a share boat arrangement through a club. The proposed tax will hurt working families who enjoy boating and the many small businesses and their employees who service them.”

He also believes “the knock-on effect of this proposal has not been considered by the Labour Party. The businesses that service, store or supply provisions for these vessels are small family businesses who will feel a direct impact of such a tax.”

BIA says the number of vessels sold each year within NSW are not as many as the Labour Government believes and the perceived taxation revenue has been significantly overstated. Boats are a discretional purchase and this tax will only push consumers to simply purchase in other states or choose other forms of recreation (like caravanning) which are not penalised by the proposed tax.

There are plenty of international examples, including taxes introduced by President Clinton in the USA in the early 1990s, where taxes on boats, like that proposed by Labour, were implemented then quickly abandoned as they didn’t raise the predicted tax revenue and devastated the local industry.

BIA implores the Labour Party to not repeat these mistakes.