[NEW VIDEO]: Victoria's New 2024 Landlords' Land Tax Explained: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

You may need to pay land tax if you own an investment property, holiday home, commercial property or vacant land.

What is land tax?

Land tax is an annual tax based on the total taxable value of all the land you own in Victoria, excluding exempt land such as your home (principal place of residence).

Land tax is calculated using the site values (determined by the Valuer-General Victoria) of all taxable land you owned as at midnight on 31 December of the year preceding the year of assessment. 

You may have to pay land tax if you own, either individually or jointly with others:

• investment properties, including residential rental properties
• commercial properties such as retail shops, office premises and factories
• holiday homes
• vacant land.

Land tax assessments are generally issued between January and June each year. 

Land tax exemptions 

Land tax does not apply to exempt land such as:

• your home, known as your principal place of residence (PPR)
• your farm, known as primary production land (PPL)
• rooming houses and charitable institutions.

If you start leasing your home (your principal place of residence) or change your address, the exemption ends and you must notify the ATO immediately. 

Paying your assessment 

There are 3 ways to pay your land tax assessment – via credit or debit card, BPAY, or in instalments via AutoPay.

If you choose AutoPay, you can pay your land tax assessment in fortnightly, monthly or in four equal payments up to 38-weeks from the issue date on your assessment. AutoPay instalments must be set up annually as instalment amounts can change depending on your tax liability.

You can create an AutoPay arrangement via My Land Tax. It is important to pay or set up a payment arrangement on time to avoid late payment interest and recovery action. 

Land tax trust surcharge

Land held on trust for a fixed, discretionary or unit trust is generally assessed at trust surcharge rates of land tax. The trust surcharge does not apply to land held by an administration trust, an excluded trust or an implied or constructive trust.

The trust surcharge rates are higher than general land tax rates and apply once the total value of the taxable land held by the trust is $25,000 or more. When the total value of the taxable land is $3,000,000 or more, there is no difference between the general and trust surcharge land tax rates.

If you tell us about the beneficiaries of the trust, we may assess the trust at general rates and may also assess the beneficiaries for their interest in the trust land in any individual assessments they receive.

Absentee owner surcharge

If you are the trustee of an absentee trust, the absentee owner surcharge applies to the trust’s taxable land. The absentee owner surcharge is additional to the land tax you pay at general or trust surcharge rates.

The surcharge is 4% from the 2024 land tax year (previously 2% for the 2020-2023 land tax years, 1.5% for the 2017-2019 land tax years and 0.5% for the 2016 land tax year).

An absentee trust is a discretionary trust, a unit trust or a fixed 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 also tell us you are an absentee owner.