As mentioned in the last few posts, those of us who pay insurance pay the FSL. The FSL funds the CFA & MFB.
Because of the recent fires the levy will now be set at 68% of the insurance premium (for businesses) add to that GST(10%) and Stamp duty (10%) and you can see that this fee will hurt small business who take out adequate insurance.
Such taxes are a disincentive to people and businesses to insure their property at prudent levels, or indeed to insure them at all.
Victoria – continues to exploit insurance as a
convenient and low-profile way to extract millions of dollars from people and individuals who simply want to protect their property.
The disastrous February 2009 bushfires in Victoria have revealed as many as 30% of those who lost their homes had no insurance at all.
Without the three or four taxes heaped on the premium, home and contents insurance could be easily affordable for every Australian.
In Victoria, the levy is substantially higher for country-based businesses than for urban companies. This situation is particularly ironic, when it is considered that mainly volunteer-based rural fire services are less likely to reach country properties in time to extinguish the fires.
The more governments penalise the insured, the more underinsured people there will be who need financial assistance to survive. As governments help those who didn’t insure, those who did ask why.
“The abolition of stamp duties on insurance will eliminate the invidious situation of taxes being charged on other taxes, a problem that is brought into sharp relief when the fire services levy, stamp duty on insurance and GST all appear on the one bill.” (2001, Victorian Government Review)
State governments now accrue more in insurance taxes than they do from gambling machines.
Reference: >>>>>
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