ARTICLE · 02 FEBRUARY 2011

Tax breaks for green buildings

DLA Piper Australia

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Fresh from the implementation of the Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) laws in November 2010, the Commonwealth Government is pressing ahead with its drive to green Australia's building stock.

AustraliaTax

Fresh from the implementation of the Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) laws in November 2010, the Commonwealth Government is pressing ahead with its drive to green Australia's building stock.

The CBD program requires owners of commercial office buildings of greater than 2000m2 to disclose the energy efficiency of the buildings during a sale and for major leases. This compulsory regime has increased the focus within the property industry on the energy efficiency of the existing building stock and is a move away from the former voluntary rating processes.

However, the cost of retrofitting existing buildings to make them more energy efficient has remained the major stumbling block for industry and has delayed the widescale take up of energy efficient retrofits. Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change & Energy Efficiency Mark Dreyfus have now jointly released the government's consultation paper on their proposed tax breaks

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