Truss welcomes early Christmas present for mobile home owners
20th December, 2013
Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss has welcomed the decision by the Australian Taxation Office to rule out proposed changes that would have seen GST applied to moveable homes.The ATO advised Mr Truss that it has withdrawn its draft ruling, which sought to apply the full GST to many caravan park residents who live in mobile homes across the Wide Bay electorate.
“This is very good news indeed, especially for the hundreds of Wide Bay residents who would have been under real financial pressure, had the ATO’s draft ruling been allowed to stand,” he said.
“I had serious concerns about the impact this would have had on the household budgets for people living in our local moveable home estates. Moveable home estates are a low cost option for housing and, in particular I had concerns for many retirees who are already under considerable financial pressure”
“I have always believed that the moveable home should be considered as commercial residential premises and subject to the same GST rules as other long term accommodation.”
Mr Truss said he was pleased to see that the ATO had listened to his concerns, and the concerns of the constituents of the Wide Bay region.
“The ATO has indicated in their statement, that the arguments included in many of the submissions were a factor in their decision. There was some strong feedback from local residents through my office, so I was happy to see that those concerns were heard and had an impact on the case against the draft ruling,” Mr Truss said.
"This decision is a very welcome Christmas present for people on mobile home estates in Wide Bay” Mr Truss said.
