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Rates will top $9400 in Forrest from July, with an average rates increase of 63 per cent across the city since tax reform began six years ago. Forrest rates are highest in the city, averaging $9411 in 2016-17. The amount reflects high land values in the inner south where six suburbs will pay more than $5000 in rates a year on average. Outside the inner south, only Turner, in the inner north, tops $5000. Reid comes close, at $4949. At the bottom end, seven suburbs pay about $1600 in rates, reflecting low land values. Four are in Gungahlin where block sizes are small, and three in Belconnen - Charnwood ($1622), Dunlop ($1615) and Macgregor ($1609). Overall, rates have increased an average 63 per cent for houses and 60 per cent for units in the six years since the government embarked on its ambitious tax reform. The amounts don't include the fire and emergency services levy, which has almost tripled since 2011, from $102 to $294, and the safer families levy introduced last year at $30 a household. In 2012, Labor pilloried the Liberals's claim that the 20-year tax reform would lead to a tripling of rates, Mr Barr saying then that the bulk of the additional rates burden would fall to the commercial sector and not to households. "The only thing that is tripling is the size of Zed Seselja's nose as he continues this campaign of lies," he said then. In 2011-12 the average rates bill for houses was $1406. From July, it is $2295. Because rates increase by the wage-price index each year, not all of the 63 per cent rates hike can be attributed to tax reform. Figures from last year's budget showed an average $746 increase in rates over five years, with $557 attributed to tax reform and $189 attributed to inflation-related increases that would have happened anyway. The government says its shift to rates is revenue neutral, offset by cuts to stamp duty on house sales and insurance taxes. The government has abolished about $47 million of insurance taxes. Stamp duty has reduced each year, although because property values have increased fast, the government has not lost revenue overall. In 2011-12, it made $268 million from stamp duty. In 2016-17 it expects to take $306 million. For someone buying a house worth $500,000 in 2011-12 the stamp duty was $20,500. Now, it is $12,800. Someone buying a $700,000 house six years ago paid $32,000 in stamp duty, but now pays $22,400. Overall, Treasury will collect $444 million in rates in 2016-17 and $487 million in the coming year. Six years ago, in the year before tax reform, it collected $209 million in rates. President of the Inner South Community Council Marea Fatseas said she understood the argument to move away from stamp duty, especially if it helped young people buy their first home. But it was important to be aware that many residents of the inner south, including in Yarralumla, had moved in in the 1940s and 1950s when it was a workers' suburb. "It's really going to hit some of these longstanding residents a lot because often they're not on high incomes," she said. "That's an issue that we're going to have to bear in mind." Chief Minister Andrew Barr said land in Forrest was extremely valuable, with the average block worth more than some people would earn in their lifetime. Canberrans were saving hundreds of dollars a year on insurance tax. A household with $1000 of insurance premiums for home, contents, car and the like would save $100 a year. And a household paying $10,000 in premiums would save $1000 a year. People on pensioner concession cards and war veteran's pensions could access discounts, in some cases up to 50 per cent of their 2015-16 rates; in other cases up to $700. Some aged pensioners could also defer rates charges until their property was sold. Canberra Business Chamber chief Robyn Hendry supported the move from stamp duty to property-based taxes, but wanted a close eye on the impact. "It's a reasonable path for the government ... but it does require businesses to absorb those increased charges and at the same time they may not benefiting from the offsets," she said. "It needs to be carefully monitored. For every increase in this transition we also need to see reductions elsewhere .... to make sure we don't put a business into position where they go from viable to not viable." Liberal Leader Alistair Coe said property taxes were "huge" and were driving people across the border. Figures provided by the Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council show average rates of $1500 in the Queanbeyan urban area and $1807 in Googong, including a waste charge - for the average unimproved property value of $235,000. A Canberra property at that value pays about $1790 this year (plus about $170 more from July). The average rates in Canberra, though, are much higher, at $2295 from July. But Mr Barr said rates in the ACT funded both local government and state level services.

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