@thenationalaccount There’s no such thing as a “spare bed tax” ##aus##news##auspol##tax##bedtax
🛏️ What happened
You may’ve seen some posts online saying the government has proposed a spare bedroom tax.
This isn’t the case.
So how did media outlets and people online get it so wrong?
🏠 The report
This story began with a report from property analytics company Cotality, released in late August.
The report suggested a solution to the housing shortage could be for the government to make it cheaper to live in small houses – and more expensive to own housing you don’t need.
Cotality's Head of Research, Eliza Owen, was then quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"It's perfectly acceptable and desirable for people to have spare bedrooms,” she said.
“[But] you could ask them to pay for it through land tax”.
👥 The conference
Eliza Owen’s comments about the tax proposal came at the same time as the federal government’s Economic Reform Roundtable in August.
Suddenly, people started to freak out that the Albanese government was considering a spare bedroom tax.
But according to AAP, Cotality didn’t submit their tax idea to the Economic Reform Roundtable.
Meanwhile, a government spokesperson said the spare bedroom tax was not raised at all during discussions.