Sum­ma­ry of Changes to Land Tax for 2024 — short read < 1min

The COVID Debt Repay­ment Plan intro­duced by the Vic­to­ri­an Gov­ern­ment as part of the 2023 – 24 State Bud­get intro­duced a num­ber of changes to prop­er­ty tax which sig­nif­i­cant­ly affect prop­er­ty own­ers in Vic­to­ria, a sum­ma­ry of these is out­lined below:

Land Tax Changes:

  • Effec­tive from the 2024 land tax year, there have been adjust­ments to land tax rates and thresh­olds based on the total tax­able val­ue (site val­ue) of landholdings:
  • For land val­ued between $50,000 and <$100,000, a $500 flat sur­charge will apply.
  • For land val­ued between $100,000 and <$300,000 (or <$250,000 for trusts), a $975 flat sur­charge will apply.
  • For land val­ued at ≥$300,000 (or ≥$250,000 for trusts), a $975 flat sur­charge will apply, along with an increased rate of land tax by 0.10 per­cent­age points.
  • Trust sur­charge rates are high­er than gen­er­al land tax rates. The sur­charge applies once the total val­ue of tax­able land held by the trust reach­es $25,000 or more. When the total val­ue of tax­able land exceeds $3,000,000, there is no dif­fer­ence between gen­er­al and trust sur­charge land tax rates.
  • Vacant res­i­den­tial land tax is sep­a­rate­ly assessed for cer­tain res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties. Prop­er­ties that remain vacant for more than 6 months in a cal­en­dar year and are not eli­gi­ble for an exemp­tion fall under this assess­ment category.

These changes are incor­po­rat­ed into the applic­a­ble rates for the 2024 to 2033 land tax years. You can find more infor­ma­tion about cur­rent land tax rates and access land tax cal­cu­la­tors on the State Rev­enue Office (SRO) website.

https://​sro​.vic​.gov​.au/​r​a​t​e​s​-​t​a​x​e​s​-​d​u​t​i​e​s​-​a​n​d​-​l​e​v​i​e​s​/​l​a​n​d​-​t​a​x​-​c​u​r​r​e​n​t​-​rates


Appor­tion­ment of Land Tax and Wind­fall Gains Tax (WGT):

  • Start­ing from Jan­u­ary 1, 2024, the appor­tion­ment of land tax between a ven­dor and pur­chas­er under a con­tract of sale of land is prohibited.
  • This pro­hi­bi­tion does not apply to con­tracts where the con­sid­er­a­tion is $10 mil­lion or greater.
  • Also from 1 Jan­u­ary 2024, ven­dors will be pro­hib­it­ed from pass­ing on WGT to a pur­chas­er under a con­tract or option agree­ment entered into after the WGT lia­bil­i­ty has been assessed.

This arti­cle is a sum­ma­ry from the State Rev­enue Office web­site and is infor­ma­tion­al only. For fur­ther details, vis­it the State Rev­enue Office web­site or con­sult with your account­ing and/​or legal professionals.