Notify us of your absentee owner status

Key information

An absentee owner surcharge applies to Victorian land owned by an absentee owner. The surcharge is applied on top of the general land tax and trust surcharge rates.

If you are an absentee owner at 31 December, you must tell us before 15 January of the following year.

Once you have notified us that you are an absentee owner via our absentee owner notification portal, your land tax assessments will include the absentee owner surcharge. We will continue to apply the absentee owner surcharge unless you notify us otherwise through the portal. 

Step 1: Confirm your absentee owner status

An absentee owner is one of the following:

• an absentee individual
• an absentee corporation
• a trustee of an absentee trust.

Each of these terms has a specific meaning. Refer to each term for more information and to work out your absentee status. 

Jointly owned land

How the absentee owner surcharge applies to jointly owned land depends on how many of the joint owners are absentee owners. 

Land tax groups

Absentee corporations may be part of a land tax group. There are 2 ways you can notify us:

• A person representing the land tax group (using the land tax group’s customer number) can notify us on behalf of each member of the group. 
• Each member of the land tax group can notify us separately.

Do I have to pay the absentee owner surcharge?

Use our online tool and see whether the absentee owner surcharge applies to you.

Step 2: Gather required information 

Once you’ve worked out that you are an absentee owner, you need the following information to submit your notification: 

• your State Revenue Office customer number
• your assessment number, which you can find on your land tax assessment
• contact name
• contact email address
• mobile number.

If you haven't received a land tax assessment, and don't know your customer number and assessment number, please contact us before submitting your notification. 

Step 3: Complete and submit your notification

Using the above information, log into our portal and fill in your details. The notification should take less than 10 minutes to submit.

Access the absentee owner notification portal

Next steps

Once you have submitted your notification, you will receive an email confirmation. Please keep this for your records. We will assess you for land tax based of your notification.