State Budget Updates

The 2018-19 South Australian State Budget, handed down on 4 September 2018, contained a number of state revenue measures.

Third Party Reporting

Amendments to the Taxation Administration Act 1996 and the Stamp Duties Act 1923 to facilitate RevenueSA collecting additional data, relating to real property transfers, on behalf of the Australian Government for foreign ownership and taxation reporting purposes.

Payroll Tax

Amendments to the Payroll Tax Act 2009 to:

remedy deficiencies in the owner-driver exemption within the contractor provisions; and
reflect changes to the income tax legislation relating to motor vehicle allowances for the purpose of determining the exempt component of a motor vehicle allowance paid to an employee.

Legislative amendments to reduce payroll tax for small business were included in the Payroll Tax (Exemption for Small Business) Bill 2018, which was introduced into Parliament on 20 June 2018. These amendments will, from 1 January 2019, exempt businesses with annual taxable wages of up to $1.5 million from payroll tax and those with wages between $1.5 million and $1.7 million will benefit from a reduced payroll tax rate.

Stamp Duty

Amendments to the Stamp Duties Act 1923 to:

expand the current stamp duty exemption for family farm transfers to include transfers involving companies limited to the family group; and
introduce a stamp duty exemption for multi-peril crop insurance policies from 1 January 2018.

Land Tax

Amendments to the Land Tax Act 1936 to:

increase the tax-free threshold to $450 000 from the 2020-21 financial year (land tax calculated on 30 June 2020); and
reduce the tax rate for land holdings valued between $1 000 000 and $5 000 000.

The legislative measures to implement these state revenue measures are contained in the Statutes Amendment and Repeal (Budget Measures) Bill 2018.

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