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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:

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:

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:

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.

Example 1: Mr Smith must contact us

Alexander Smith is the sole owner of 3 Park Lane and 7 Fleet Street.

He receives two separate assessments; one for 3 Park Lane under the name of Alexander Smith and another for 7 Fleet Street under the name Alex Smith.

Mr Smith should contact us within 60 days of receiving his assessments because all the land he owns individually should be included on the same assessment and under the same name.

Assessments for jointly owned land

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

Example 2: Mr McEvoy does not need to not contact us

Tim McEvoy owns two properties: 2 Bond Street by himself and 4 Paddington Lane jointly owned with Anna Rossi.

Tim receives two assessments; a joint ownership assessment for Tim and Anna listing and assessing Paddington Lane and an individual assessment for himself listing Bond Street and his interest in Paddington Lane.

Mr McEvoy does not need to 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.

Example 3: Mr Georgiou does not need to not contact us

Paul Georgiou owns three properties: 6 Main Street in his own name, and 15 Charles Street and 4 Albert Avenue as trustee for the Georgiou Family Trust.

He receives two assessments: an individual assessment for 6 Main Street and a trust assessment for 15 Charles Street and 4 Albert Avenue as trustee for the Georgiou Family Trust.

Mr Georgiou does not need to contact us as he has been correctly assessed.

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.

Example 4: Mr Nguyen must contact us

Van Nguyen owns two investment properties: 16 View Street and 21 Union Avenue. He also owns a commercial property, 3 Spring Street, with Jessica Do.

Mr Nguyen receives his individual assessment but it only lists View Street.

Mr Nguyen must contact us and tell us that his assessment is missing 21 Union Avenue and 3 Spring Street.

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.

Example 5: Ms Singh must contact us

Chandra Singh owns two investment properties: 4 Mayfair Street and 21 Oxford Street. She receives an assessment listing both properties but showing Oxford Street exempt as her principal place of residence (PPR).

Ms Singh has not used Oxford Street as her PPR so it is not eligible for the PPR exemption. She must contact us.

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:

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. 

Last modified: 29 February 2024
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