Making a vacant residential land tax notification
Description
Homes in inner and middle Melbourne unoccupied for more than six months in a calendar year may be subject to vacant residential land tax (VRLT). Owners must notify the State Revenue Office of unoccupied homes through an online portal. This video outlines what information you need to provide to complete a notification via the portal.
Changes to VRLT
From 1 January 2025, VRLT’s scope is changing. You can read about the changes announced in December 2023 or read our answers to frequently asked questions.
Transcript
Use our online portal to notify us of your vacant residential property, or to claim an exemption from vacant residential land tax.
Initially, you have the opportunity to provide identifying information, such as your SRO customer number, which will streamline the process for you by prefilling some details. You can still make a notification without choosing this option.
On the next screen, you must declare that you are authorised to make the notification and that you will provide complete and correct information. You also need to provide your name and contact details.
Let us know whether you are lodging the notification as the property owner or on the owner’s behalf, and what year your notification relates to.
You must then provide information about the property owner. If you provided identifying information on entering the portal, some of these fields will be prefilled.
You can nominate an authorised representative to deal with us on the owner’s behalf in relation to the tax. You can also choose to have future vacant residential land tax correspondence, including assessment notices, sent via email to either the property owner or their authorised representative.
The next screen is for property information. Here, you can notify us about multiple properties. However, if you own properties under multiple ownership structures, you need to log in again and make a separate submission for each ownership structure.
For example, if you need to notify us about three properties which you jointly own with your partner, you can let us know about all three properties in the one submission. However, if you jointly own two properties with your partner and one property on your own, you will need to log in to the portal twice to make a separate submission for each ownership structure.
If you provided identifying information when you entered the portal, a list of the owner’s properties will be prepopulated. If a property in one of the 16 affected council areas is missing, select the “add property” button and provide the property’s details.
If properties haven’t been prepopulated, you need enter the details of any property located in the 16 affected council areas that was vacant for more than six months of the calendar year.
You can claim an exemption for a holiday home, a home used for attending work, or a new or newly acquired home. More information about exemptions can be found in the blue boxes and via the links.
Review the summary page to ensure the details you have provided are correct. If necessary, use the “back” button to make changes.
If the information is correct, select “submit”.
You will receive a submission reference number, and a copy of your submission will be emailed to you.
If you have any questions about the vacant residential land tax, visit sro.vic.gov.au/vacant or call us on 13 21 61.
