Stallion Tax rumours quashed

The status on the ‘Stallion Tax’ Harness Racing Australia proposed to the industry some months ago remains unchanged according to the federal body.

Despite industry discussion, HRA chief executive Andrew Kelly said that the HRA Chairman’s letter to the industry on June 9, 2021, is where the topic still is at this stage.

“Referring to the open letter to the industry on June 9, if and when anything becomes concrete to put forward on that matter it will be discussed with the relevant stakeholders,” said Kelly.

On April 16, 2021, HRA put forward a proposal to the industry of a stallion levy that would raise funds to “promote, improve and support the harness racing industry”.

A 15 per cent tax was proposed on the advertised service fee of shuttle and internationally domiciled stallions (transported and frozen semen) to raise these funds.

It was anticipated to generate in excess of $2million annually to put towards a number of propositions that had yet been decided on. Click here to view the proposal.

This proposal was not well supported by the industry at large when the consultation period closed on June 2, where HRA reported to have received a total of 40 submissions.

A week later, the HRA Chairman Graeme Campbell OAM, wrote a letter to the industry on the matter. Click here to view it.

The HRA Executive are set to meet in the middle of October.

Previous stories and letters on the topic:

• Another stallion TAX victim
• Stallion TAX casualty
• Andrew Kelly, HRA – stop TAXING us to death
• Stallion Tax letter to HRA on behalf of breeders

By Amanda Rando for Harnesslink