The New South Wales government abolished three business taxes in yesterday’s state budget, including the duty on business mortgages, but did little to improve housing affordability.

NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian saying the abolition of three state taxes will save businesses more than $400 million a year and will reduce red tape.

“We will abolish duty on business mortgages and unlisted securities, and transfer duty on non-real business assets as we said we would,” Berejiklian said.

“If you believe in creating jobs and economic growth, you must support and enable business to operate efficiently,” she said.

Last financial year, more than 200,000 businesses in NSW paid the business mortgage duty, a tax imposed on a business mortgage when it is used as security for another business transaction.

The state government will also abolish share transfer duty, a tax on the transfer of non-listed shares in a NSW company or a unit trust scheme, and non-real transfer duty, a tax on the transfer of business assets such as goodwill, intellectual property, patents and designs.

The budget also put $1 billion aside for a new fleet of trains, and devoted $16.9 million to road and transport projects. The budget has no new measures to improve housing affordability, though existing first-home buyer grants for new homes remain in place.

A new 4% stamp duty surcharge and 0.75% land tax will apply to foreign buyers of residential property, and will go some way to offsetting the loss of income from abolition of the business taxes.

See also:

Median property prices highlight affordability pressures

NSW joins Vic, Qld with foreign investor buyer tax increase

Has NSW written off first-home buyers?

Time to review stamp duty brackets