Owning a property

Description

This video outlines the taxes and levies you should be aware of if you own property in Victoria.

Transcript

If you own property in Victoria, it’s important to understand the taxes and levies which might affect you.

You may need to pay land tax if you own more properties than the principal home you live in.

Land tax is an annual tax on all the Victorian land you own, individually or with others, excluding exempt land like your principal home, primary production land or land used for charitable purposes.

An additional absentee owner surcharge on land tax may apply if you are not an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and live outside Australia.

If you own residential land which is vacant for more than 6 months in a calendar year, you may also need to pay vacant residential land tax.

Your holiday home may be exempt if you and your family use it at least 4 weeks a year.

All Victorian property owners must pay the emergency services and volunteers fund, or ESVF, whether the property is your home or not.

ESVF is collected by councils and appears on your rates notice.

Active volunteers and life members from the Country Fire Authority and Victoria State Emergency Service will be eligible for a rebate.

The congestion levy applies to off-street car parking spaces across parts of inner Melbourne, but residential parking is exempt.

If you accept short stays at your property, and you do not use a booking platform, you may need to pay the short stay levy.

Property developers and owners of commercial and industrial property should also be aware of the growth areas infrastructure contribution, windfall gains tax and commercial and industrial property tax.

Owners of property in Melbourne's expanding fringe suburbs may be affected by the growth areas infrastructure contribution, which developers pay to fund infrastructure in the municipality where the land is located.

When the value of land increases because it is rezoned, the owners of that land may become liable to pay windfall gains tax.

Finally, if you own commercial and industrial property, there has been a move from land transfer duty and landholder duty to an annual property tax known as the commercial and industrial property tax.

Commercial and industrial property tax will not become payable until 2035 at the earliest.

To learn more about your obligations when you own a property, visit our website: sro.vic.gov.au.