Lodge an objection
Are you objecting to a site or capital improved value?
To object to the site value used in your land tax assessment or capital improved value used in your vacant residential land tax assessment or windfall gains tax assessment, you must lodge a land valuation objection.
Are you objecting to land tax?
You can object to your land tax assessment or reassessment, including objecting to penalty tax.
All other objections — what you need to know
Objecting is a formal process that requires you to explain the grounds of your objection and describe clearly the reasons why the assessment has been incorrectly issued based the relevant legislation. The objection must challenge the legal basis for the assessment.
An objection is generally not valid if the grounds stated are vague, claim that the tax payable is too high or merely contend that an assessment or decision should not be issued on compassionate grounds. Not being able to pay your assessment is also not a valid ground of objection.
Your objection must be lodged with us within the following timeframes:
- within 60 days after receiving your assessment or reassessment, or
- within 60 days after the date of notice of decision made under the Payroll Tax, First Home Owner Grant, Unclaimed Money and Back to Work Acts.
If you lodge your objection after the 60-day timeframe, you must provide reasons for the delay. If no reasons are provided to explain the lateness in lodging your objection, your objection will be invalid.
If you are objecting to a reassessment, your objection is limited to the extent of the liabilities additional to or greater than the liabilities under the previous assessment. For example, if your original assessment was for $300 and the reassessment was for $340, the objection is limited to the change that contributed to the additional $40.
Lodging your objection
For any other objection, please follow the steps below.
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Prepare your objection
To object, you need to provide the following information:
- your name and contact details, including phone number and email address
- a written authority to act on someone's behalf (if applicable)
- the customer number (if known) of the assessed person or person who received a decision
- information about the assessment or decision you are objecting to:
- assessment or reassessment number, or notice of repayment ID, or the transaction or bundle ID for the property to which your objection relates
- aspects that you object to (i.e. all or part of the primary or penalty tax, interest, or decision)
- the reasons why you are objecting to all or part of the assessment or decision – you should describe this in detail and refer to relevant legislation and supporting evidence.
Make sure all supporting evidence is included with your objection as this speeds up the objection process.
Supporting evidence
We have set out the documents you may want to include for some common objections. You can also search our website for more information on the subject of your objection, as this should help you identify any supporting evidence you might need.
Land transfer (stamp) duty objections
If you are objecting to a land transfer duty assessment, refer to the Evidentiary Requirements Manual for a list of relevant supporting documents.
If you do not have a customer number, assessment or reassessment number, transaction or bundle ID, you should provide a copy of the transfer or the address of the property your objection relates to.
First Home Owner Grant objections
For First Home Owner Grant objections, you should provide copies of:
- your driver licence
- your utility bills for when you used the property as your principal place of residence (i.e. complete copies, showing name of account holder(s), address where the invoice was sent and utility usage throughout the period invoiced)
- any other documents showing that the property is or was your principal place of residence.
Payroll tax objections
For payroll tax objections, for all the affected tax years, you should provide copies of:
- financial statements
- income tax returns
- employment contracts
- payment summaries
- independent contractor agreements and invoices.
Read about what you need to consider before objecting to penalty tax on your payroll tax assessment. Once you have decided that you want to continue with your objection to the penalty tax, go to Step 2.
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Lodge your objection
You can either submit your objection:
- by post or email, or
- using the online objection form.
Submit your objection by post or email
You can submit your objection by emailing it to our objection inbox (please note that only objections will be accepted at this address; for all other enquiries, please contact us).
You can also mail your objection to:
Technical Advice and Review Branch
State Revenue Office
GPO Box 1641
Melbourne VIC 3001Submit your objection via online form
Next Steps
Once your objection is received by us, we will contact you or your authorised representative if we need additional information and to notify you, in writing, of the outcome of your objection.
We aim to make a decision within 90 days but this may vary, depending on the complexity of the issue, the need for more information and other factors which may impact this timeframe.
We seek to resolve objections as early as possible and at minimal cost to all parties. We do this by giving you and/or your representatives further opportunities to provide additional information, clarify facts, or discuss the issues in an effort to clarify, narrow or resolve issues disputed in your objection.
If, while waiting for our decision, your liability is due for payment in full or by instalment, you should pay that amount on time. If you do not pay the assessed liability on time, daily interest will continue to accrue on the outstanding amount.
If you have paid or partially paid your assessment, and we allow or partially allow your objection, you will receive a refund of the overpaid tax with interest.
If your objection is disallowed by us, you will have further rights to request the determination be reviewed at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal or appealed to the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Last modified: 20 August 2024
News and updates
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20 November 2024
State Revenue Office 2023–24 Annual Review is now available
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16 October 2024
New revenue ruling DA-068 published
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16 October 2024
Revised revenue ruling LTA-006v2 published
