What does it take to make a house new

Australia's Goods and Services Tax (GST), like many Value Added Tax (VAT) systems, distinguishes between new and used residential premises, treating new residential premises as taxable supply and used residential premises as input taxed supply or outside the scope of GST/VAT. The issue of when renovated premises cross the line from used to new in the eyes of GST/VAT law is contentious. This article examines the legal approaches taken in different jurisdictions to determine when renovations can yield new residential premises for GST/VAT purposes. It shows that sometimes these approaches have an unnecessarily restrictive effect, producing results that are inconsistent with the benchmark goal, and uncertainties as to when a new taxing point should be created. A statutory solution is offered to this problem, based on whether the cost of the work to the property is under or over a certain percentage of its resale value