Land tax shock!

:eek:Hi guys

I recently received a notice from OSR requesting registration for land tax. I have done so and was told that I owe land tax for a few years, the bill is horrendous.

Can I claim land tax relating to prior tax years in the tax year I actually pay for it? I suspect not? Does this mean I need to request amended notices of assessment for all prior years?!

Thanks in advance.
 
Land tax can be a killer if you havent structured your holdings to minimise it.

I strongly suggest you run your situation past your chosen tax accountant because at the end of the day that is who is advising you.
 
Land tax can be a killer if you havent structured your holdings to minimise it.

I strongly suggest you run your situation past your chosen tax accountant because at the end of the day that is who is advising you.

If your accountant is aware of your holdings and did not ask you about land tax payments then they are slack IMO
 
dont have an accountant ............ been doing my own taxes all these years:eek:

I think the time has come for me to get one!

Any recommendations for a Sydney-based one is greatly appreciated!
 
dont have an accountant ............ been doing my own taxes all these years:eek:

I think the time has come for me to get one!

Any recommendations for a Sydney-based one is greatly appreciated!

Hi,
I do not understand how you did not know your land threshold on your investments this would of easy been sorted by looking at your rate notices when you get them,seems a very big mistake by you.
Macca446
 
Yes, people have said on here you need to register for land tax but I just got a bill when I reached the threshold.


If you have enough property to pay land tax I can't believe you don't have a decent accountant. My accountant has saved me more money each year than what I pay him.

You want one that has a property portfolio themselves.
 
You can also lessen the impact of LT across your portfolio via strata plan holdings. Less land component within the purchase price.
 
Each state has a different threshold and different rules . How States treat trusts vary .

Eg in q'land each trust has a seperate threshold , so by having different trusts you can avoid paying land tax .

Cliff
 
I can't wait to get my land tax bill next year. Expecting a figure equivalent to an overseas holiday.

We have a big land tax bill due in a week for property held in a trust. It is a good lesson on getting appropriate advice on setting up how you should hold property. (This was not our doing, but an inherited situation.) We also have our own land tax to pay for our double block.

If we get approval to build townhouses on our double block, we will be putting each townhouse into a separate trust. The two houses will be left in hubby's name on much smaller blocks, and I've estimated that the land tax on the total might still be around what it is now.

With the trust, the options are to pay the stamp duty to transfer one or more houses into different names/trusts, which would only be worthwhile if we hold the properties long enough to recoup the expenses of doing so, or to suck it up and decide whether to sell something, buy something else in another entity, sell a property and buy shares instead, etc.

We have until 30 June 2015 (land tax is calculated on your holdings as at that date) to make a decision on whether we change things. If we do nothing, we get to pay it again next year. I really hurts to pay out so much. i know we are lucky to have the assets, but structured differently, we be so much better off.

My parents chose just one trust for several reasons that made sense at the time, but one of the reasons not to set up more than one trust was the extra cost to manage multiple trusts, cost to do the tax etc. I don't recall any advice back then about land tax being discussed and the option of having one property per trust. (Also, I guess the land value was much less back then, and as it rises, the land tax rises.)

So, when the likes of fullylucky ask questions and ignore the answers, it makes me annoyed. My parents took advice, and the advice was to have more than one trust. Choosing not to do so has proved to have been the wrong way to set things up, but at the time, land tax was not the impost it has become.

There is a lesson there for budding investors.
 
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Wylie, from what I read trusts do nothing to reduce land tax? I'm in Victoria and pretty sure it's a different set of laws regarding land tax in qld.
 
Wylie, from what I read trusts do nothing to reduce land tax? I'm in Victoria and pretty sure it's a different set of laws regarding land tax in qld.

You have read wrong! Laws vary from state to state. QLD is totally different to elsewhere.
 
That's what I mean. Creating a trust to reduce land tax in Victoria is pointless but beneficial in qld. Or do i have it all wrong?
 
That's what I mean. Creating a trust to reduce land tax in Victoria is pointless but beneficial in qld. Or do i have it all wrong?

I'm advised that each trust (in Queensland) has a $300K threshold, which is about half of the individual threshold.
 
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