Land tax laws have recently been announced and then withdrawn. The proposed changes were so that the value of any interstate land owned by an entity would be considered when determining Queensland land tax liability.

Queensland Parliament recently passed then withdrew the Revenue Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 which included changes to how land tax will be calculated in Queensland from 30 June 2023.

From that date, it proposed interstate land be included to determine:

• Whether the land tax-free threshold has been exceeded; and
• The total taxable value of your landholding, which is used to calculate the rate of land tax that will be applied to the Queensland proportion of your landholdings.

Once the rate of land tax has been calculated, you would only pay land tax on the land that you owned in Queensland.

If you do not own land in other states or territories, this change would not affect you.

If you do own land in another state or territory, you would need have had to declare your interstate landholding by setting up an online account with the Queensland Revenue Office and completing a declaration (within 30 days of receiving your assessment or by 31 October) which includes:

• Details of the land;
• The land value based on the statutory value in that state or territory; and
• Your percentage of ownership of the land.

Most (but not all) of the land tax exemptions applicable to Queensland land also apply to interstate land (for example, principal place of residence, primary production land).

The most obvious effect of this change is that many people who owned both Queensland and interstate property, but were previously below the land tax threshold, may have been above the threshold and liable to pay land tax on the Queensland property they hold.

What a difference a day makes especially in politics!

Note that in NSW and Victoria there are deemed Foreign Trust land tax surcharge laws. I suspect that it will not be long before Queensland follows suit to align with these states.

If you have issues about stamp duty and Land Tax, please give Tony or Stuart a call 07 3839 7555.