Our landholder compliance programs focus on ensuring our customers correctly lodge and pay duty on their landholder transactions.
To help you get it right, we provide a range of information and tools, including:
- information on landholder duty in Victoria
- decision tools to assist customers determine whether they are liable to duty
- regular webinars and a range of videos on the landholder provisions
- an online portal for lodging landholder transactions
- payment options.
Our compliance activities
Data from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and the Australian Taxation Office is used to help us target areas of non-compliance and select cases effectively.
Our compliance activities include investigating and monitoring:
- transactions involving parties located within and outside Australia
- transactions involving the takeover or listing of landholders on the Australian Stock Exchange, as well as any of the other member exchanges on the World Federation of Exchanges
- contract splitting arrangements, including interests acquired at the same time or over time by the same person, associated persons or any persons pursuant to an associated transaction
- disclosure and valuation of all relevant land holdings, including items fixed to land, economic entitlements, uncompleted agreements and land held through linked entities.
Common errors to avoid
Common errors to avoid include:
- failing to disclose relevant acquisitions that arise due to the aggregation of interests acquired at the same time or over time by the same person, associated persons or any persons pursuant to an associated transaction
- failing to disclose and appropriately value fixtures and other improvements attached to land holdings, including fixtures held separately from land
- failing to disclose land holdings held through linked entities, including under uncompleted agreements which are deemed to be land holdings as from the date of the agreement rather than the date of settlement of the agreement
- failing to correctly calculate duty in accordance with:
- the phasing in of duty formula when the land holdings of a landholder have a value between $1 million and $2 million
- the further interest formula when the relevant acquisition is an acquisition of a further interest in the landholder
- relying on real estate appraisal letters or rating valuations as evidence of market value.
