Land tax assessment errors and omissions

Annual land tax assessments are issued to owners of Victorian land. Depending on how you own land, you may receive more than one land tax assessment.

Your land tax assessment includes a Statement of Lands you own at midnight 31 December and should show:

• whether you are being assessed as an individual, a joint ownership, trustee of a trust and/or an absentee owner
• all the Victorian land you own, including land you own jointly with others, and/or have a notified beneficial interest in, under a trust
• any applicable exemptions.

It is your responsibility to tell us, within 60 days of the issue date of your assessment, if there is anything on the assessment that is incorrect or missing.

Most common changes and updates can be made online via My Land Tax or by calling us on 13 21 61. Common changes and updates include:

• updating your contact details
• updating your principal place of residence
• removing land that you do not own
• removing an exemption you’re not entitled to
• applying for an exemption for a property that should have been marked as your principal place of residence or as primary production land.

Please have your assessment on hand along with any other information relevant to your request.

Update your details via My Land Tax

If you need to add land to your assessment, call us on 13 21 61.

For some errors and omissions, penalties may apply if you fail to notify us within specific timeframes. These are explained in more detail below.

Land errors and omissions

You must notify us within 60 days of your assessment's issue date if you:

• have received more than one assessment for different lands which you own by yourself
• own land which has not been included on your assessment
• received an exemption which you are not entitled
• received an assessment that does not reflect that you are a trustee or an absentee owner.

You must tell us regardless of whether you own the land individually, on trust, or jointly with others. If you do not comply with the time requirement, penalty tax may apply.

Receiving more than one assessment

We assess individuals, joint ownerships and trustees separately.

Each year, you should receive only one assessment listing all of the land you own, whether alone, with others and/or where you have notified beneficial interest in a trust.

Individual assessment

While you should receive only one individual assessment, you may receive more than one assessment if you own land with others or hold land on trust.

If you receive more than one individual assessment you need to tell us.

Assessments for jointly owned land

If you own land with others, you are a joint owner. We assess jointly owned land in 2 stages:

1. Joint ownership assessment
   We assess all joint owners together on all of their jointly owned land as though they were one person.
    
2. Individual assessment
   We assess each owner individually on all the taxable lands they own, in any capacity, and note their interest in any jointly owned land.

The joint ownership assessment lists all joint owners and includes a Statement of Lands for all land jointly owned by all the listed owners. We send this assessment to one of the joint owners on behalf of all the owners.

You may therefore receive an individual assessment and, if you own land with others, a joint ownership assessment on behalf of all joint owners.

However, if the joint ownership receives more than one assessment, they should contact us.

Assessment for land held on trust

Land held on trust is subject to special rules. You need to tell us if you hold land on trust and if there are certain changes in your trust.

You should receive a separate trust assessment for each trust you act for. Each assessment should list all the land(s) held for the particular trust.

You do not need to notify us unless we have issued more than one assessment for the same trust or land you hold on trust appears on your individual assessment.

Land not included in your assessment

Your land tax assessment includes a Statement of Lands listing all the land you own at midnight on 31 December. If the statement does not list all the land you own in the capacity in which we are assessing you, your assessment is incorrect and must be amended.

You must let us know through My Land Tax.

Ineligible exemptions

The Statement of Lands in your assessment also lists any exemptions applied to your land.

These exemptions are listed as codes which are explained in the summary attached to your assessment. Our website has more information on each of the exemptions.

You can only claim an exemption if you meet the conditions that apply to it. If you are not entitled to receive an exemption that is included in your notice, you must let us know through My Land Tax.

Ownership errors

If you own land as an absentee owner or under a trust arrangement, you need to tell us within specified time frames about certain issues to avoid penalties.

Land held on trust

If you hold land on trust, you need to have notified us either by 31 December 2005 or within a month of acquiring the land. Each trust will receive its own land tax assessment.

Trustees must also notify us in writing within one month if:

• There is a change in the type of trust (for example, if a discretionary trust changes to a fixed trust).
• There is a change in the beneficial interest(s) of a fixed trust where a notification of beneficial interest is in force.
• There is a change of unit holdings in a unit trust where a notification of unit holdings in the trust is in force.
• The nominated principal place of residence (PPR) beneficiary stops using the trust land as their PPR.

Personal representatives will hold the assets of a deceased estate in an administration trust. If the estate owns land in Victoria, the personal representative must notify us within one month of:

• commencing the administration of the deceased estate, and
• completing the administration of the deceased estate.

If you have not told us about any of these things, you should notify us as soon as possible, otherwise penalties may apply.

Absentee owner

If you are an absentee owner as at 31 December, you must notify us before 15 January on the following year using our Absentee Owner Portal.

Once you have notified us, we will assume that your existing status is current unless you tell us otherwise. Your land tax assessments will include the absentee owner surcharge until you update your status.

Failing to notify us

A notification default under the Taxation Administration Act 1997 is triggered when you do not notify us:

• within 60 days of your assessment that there is an error or omission with the lands that you own
• within one month of acquiring land on trust
• within one month of there being a change in your trust arrangement
• before 15 January that you were an absentee owner as at 31 December of the previous year.

When a notification default occurs, you may be liable for penalty tax on the additional amount that would have been assessed had you notified us of the issue in time. The standard rate of penalty tax applied is 25%. 

However, the rate of penalty tax may be reduced/increased to:

• 5% if you voluntarily tell us of the correct details before we start investigating you
• 20% if you tell us of the correct details after we start an investigation
• up to 90% if we believe that you intentionally disregarded the law and hindered our investigation.

Revenue Ruling TAA-007v5 has further information on how penalty tax is applied.