The Victorian State Government has announced new taxes to partially fund the Suburban Rail Loop as part of “value capture” arrangements.

The Victorian State Revenue Office has issued a draft revenue ruling “Land transfer duty - Consideration - Assumption of tax liabilities” for comment that seeks to impose a new stamp duty on adjustments at settlement of property transfers.  This is an Australian first tax and will penalise commercial and other property transfers.

A New South Wales case has opened up a risk of taxpayers to surcharge rates of stamp duty and land tax for residential land held in family trusts where badly drafted foreign person exclusion clauses have been used.  This may require a complete review of all trust deeds to ensure that additional stamp duty and land tax imposts are not incurred.

The State Government has introduced a new bill to State Parliament to implement changes from the 2025-2026 Victorian State Budget.  Despite a promise of no new taxes or increased taxes, a new 50% penalty tax rate allows the State Revenue to impose higher penalties if it considers a taxpayer or their adviser has been “reckless”.

The 2025-2026 Victorian State Budget contains no new taxes or increased taxes, however previously announced changes have been confirmed – including increases to the congestion/car parking levy and the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund levy.

A Victorian foreign purchaser who bought a property in her own name with funding provided by her Australian spouse was unsuccessful in a VCAT request for exemption from foreign purchaser stamp duty surcharge in Sim v Commissioner of State Revenue [2025] VCAT 349.

A taxpayer has lost an appeal in New South Wales on the ground that a potential exemption did not apply to agreements to transfer. This has wide implications for other transactions.

The New South Wales State Budget 2024-25 is a mixed bag, containing an increase to foreign surcharges, but also payroll tax relief for GP contractors. The tax-free threshold for land tax will also remain the same, so more landowners will be subject to land tax as property values rise.

The new Commercial and Industrial Property Tax reform that progressively abolishes stamp duty on commercial and industrial property from 1 July 2024 is one of the most significant Victorian property tax reforms in the past 30 years.  Anyone looking to buy or sell commercial or industrial property will be impacted.

It has been a long held view of the State Revenue Office (SRO) that if beneficiary loans are forgiven in connection with a distribution of real estate from a discretionary trust to a beneficiary, then the duty exemption in section 36A of the Duties Act 2000 (Vic) will not apply and the transfer will trigger land transfer (stamp) duty.

The 2023-2024 Victorian State Budget was delivered by the Victorian Government on 23 May 2023.

In our previous article, we discuss Revenue NSW’s announcement that it has determined that NSW surcharge purchaser duty and surcharge land tax are inconsistent with international tax treaties entered into by the Australian Federal Government and certain countries (Treaty Countries).

On 29 May 2023, Revenue NSW has updated its list of Treaty Countries to now include India, Japan, Norway and Switzerland.

On 21 February 2023 Revenue NSW announced that it has been determined that NSW surcharge purchaser duty and surcharge land tax (Surcharge Provisions) are inconsistent with international tax treaties entered into by the Australian Federal Government with New Zealand, Finland, Germany, and South Africa (Treaty Countries).

After a contract of sale becoming unconditional any delays in settlement may result in interest payable in accordance with the terms of the sale contract (Late Settlement Interest).

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s (VCAT) decision in Hartman v Commissioner of State Revenue (Review and Regulation) [2022] VCAT 28 (Hartman Case) is a rare decision on the application of the sub-sale “double duty” provisions in the Duties Act 2000 (Vic) (Act).

Land transfer duty is calculated on the dutiable value of the property. In Commissioner of State Revenue (Vic) v 1043 Melton Highway Pty Ltd [2020] VSC 820, the Supreme Court considered default interest is included in ‘consideration’ for the transfer of dutiable property.

The coronvirus pandemic continues to have an impact on the health of Victorians and the econmy of the State. In recognition the Victorian Government continues to provide a number of state tax and duty relief measures to assist Victorians with the economic impact of the pandemic.

While the application of land transfer (stamp) duty is reasonably straight forward for land transfers such as a purchase of property under a contract of sale, the application of duty in relation to declarations of trust can be complicated.

A common question we receive is whether, and what sort of, a valuation is required to calculate land transfer duty for related party property dealings.

In April 2020 we reported on Land Tax and Payroll Tax measures state and territory revenue offices made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the ramifications of COVID-19 continue to affect Australians, these measures have since been extended and new measures announced.