Approved Commonwealth concession cards
Check which cards make you eligible for a duty exemption or concession.
Key information
We offer a duty exemption or concession for eligible concession card holders, including pensioners, when they buy a property to live in.
To qualify, you must hold an approved Commonwealth concession card on the date of the transfer. Generally, you must be the primary card holder. Being listed as a dependant or partner on another person’s card is not enough, unless a specific exception applies.
Concession cards
The approved concession cards are:
- Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Commonwealth Seniors Health Card
- DVA Pensioner Concession Card
- DVA Veteran Gold Card
- Services Australia Health Care Card, except the Foster Child Health Care Card (FO or FST) and Carer Allowance Health Care Card (CD)
- Services Australia Pensioner Concession Card
- Services Australia Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
These cards are generally issued to people receiving a specific government payment, pension or allowance including:
- age pension
- carer payment
- disability support pension
- JobSeeker payment
- parenting payment (single or partnered)
- special benefit.
Remember that even if you receive one of the payments listed, you may not be entitled to an approved concession card. If not, you cannot receive this exemption or concession.
Services Australia Health Care Cards
Services Australia health care cards contain a 2- or 3-letter code that tells you what type of benefit, allowance or payment the card is for. This code is on the front of the card on the last line after the words ‘CARD START’ and the date. For example, a Health Care Card will have the letters ‘LI’ if the holder receives a low income allowance.
A Services Australia Health Care Card qualifies for this duty exemption or concession, except for:
- a Foster Child Health Care Card, with the code ‘FO’ or ‘FST’
- a Carer Allowance Health Care Card, with the code ‘CD’.
Exceptions to the primary card holder rule
In limited circumstances, we treat both the primary card holder and their partner as card holders for the purposes of the duty exemption or concession. In these cases, both may be treated as eligible concession card holders.
The most common examples of this are holders of the following Health Care Cards:
- Family Assistance (FA) Services Australia Health Care Card
- Parenting Payment Partnered (PP) Services Australia Health Care Card.