If you are a trustee of a trust that owns land you must notify the State Revenue Office of this fact.

Land held on a trust for either a fixed, discretionary or unit trust is generally assessed at trust surcharge rate of land tax. The Trust Surcharge rates are higher than the general land tax rates and are applied once the total value of land held by the trust is $25,000 or more. For landholdings valued at or over $3,000,000 the surcharge rate is 0, and the normal marginal rates apply.

If you are a trustee of an absentee trust, the absentee owner surcharge applies to the trust’s taxable land holdings. This absentee surcharge is paid in addition to any other general or trust surcharge rates. This surcharge is 2% from the 2020 Land Tax Year.

An absentee trust is a fixed, discretionary or unit trust, which has at least one beneficiary who is an absentee person. If you are the trustee of an absentee trust that owns taxable land, you must notify the SRO that you are an absentee owner.

An absentee individual is any individual who:

is not an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and does not ordinarily reside in Australia, and was either absent from Australia: on 31 December of the year prior to the tax year, or

for more than six months in total in the calendar year prior to the tax year.

For further information please contact us.