Capital Works (Build to Rent Misuse Tax) Bill 2024

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill a second time, which means they can now discuss it in greater detail.

What does this bill do?

According to the parliamentary library's bills digest:

• Build to Rent (BTR) involves multi-unit buildings where the units, instead of being sold, are typically rented out through a single management entity.

• BTR tax incentives are designed to help increase housing supply for renters by encouraging investment in the BTR sector.

• Schedule 1 to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Responsible Buy Now Pay Later and Other Measures) Bill 2024 proposes the following BTR tax incentives, provided certain eligibility criteria are met:

• increasing the capital works deduction rate from 2.5% to 4% per year for eligible new BTR developments

• reducing the final withholding tax rate on eligible fund payments and capital gains from Managed Investment Trust investments for eligible BTR developments from 30% to 15%, with application from 1 July 2024.

• The Capital Works (Build to Rent Misuse Tax) Bill 2024 ensures the integrity of the proposed tax concessions by allowing the Commissioner of Taxation to recover any tax concessions that are improperly claimed by a taxpayer, including BTR capital works deductions, or BTR withholding amounts, or both.

• The measures apply to eligible BTR capital works that commenced after 7.30pm AEST on or after 9 May 2023.

• The Bills have been referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee for inquiry and report. The initial reporting date was 24 June 2024. However, the Committee has agreed to seek an extension to 2 August 2024.

• At the time of writing, the Bills have not been considered by any scrutiny committees.