Complete a Digital Duties Form

Background information

The Digital Duties Form is used to capture contract and transaction details for land transfer duty. It is completed in Duties Online and links to the duty transaction.

It applies to electronic lodgement network operator (ELNO) and paper (non-ELNO) settlements.

All taxpayer representatives must be registered for Duties Online (DOL). 

If you are representing yourself and want to complete your own Digital Duties Form, register via our public lodgement system.

The steps below describe how the Digital Duties Form progresses between the transferor’s and transferee’s representatives.

Step 1: Start the Digital Duties Form and enter transferor information 

If you are the transferor’s representative (or if you are representing yourself as the transferor), you must create the Digital Duties Form.

If you are representing both the vendor and purchaser, such as in related or associated party transactions, select the option to represent both the transferor and transferee when creating the form. 

More than one person can represent a vendor or purchaser. You can invite multiple participants, with each person completing the information relevant to their role. 

The transferor’s representative enters the contract details that pre-populate the transferee form.

In Duties Online:

• go to the ‘Create’ tab
• select ‘Land Transfer Duty Form’.

We recommend entering the transferor information at least 30 days before settlement. This allows the transferee's representative sufficient time to complete the transferee form.

Once the form is created, the transferee’s representative is invited to complete the transferee form.

Step 2: Complete transferee information

If you are the transferee's representative, you will receive an email and need to select the link, accept the invitation and log in. 

In the 'Search' tab under 'All forms', edit the transferee form by selecting the button under 'Actions'.

Complete the remainder of the information, including any applicable concessions.

Step 3: Sign the Digital Duties Form

Once both the transferor’s and transferee’s representatives have completed all the data entry and the verification of identity, they invite their clients to sign.

Online signing

In Duties Online, select ‘Request Signature’ to email your client the link to their completed form. Your client can accept and sign via a tick-box or decline. Either way, the representative receives an email when their client signs or declines.

Note: It is very important to get your client's date of birth correct within the form as it must match the date of birth they enter before they can sign the form. If the system does not accept the date of birth, the client should contact their representative. If the date of birth is incorrect, the representative can correct it and send a new email requesting the client to sign the form.

Manual signing 

In Duties Online, select 'Download' and then print the completed form for your client to sign manually. You must acknowledge in Duties Online that you hold a hard copy of your client’s signed and completed form. You must retain this document for 5 years.

Self-represented individuals

In Duties Online, select 'Action' and then 'Manage signatories' in the drop-down menu. Select 'Sign form' for form signing. 

Once signed, the form is complete.

Next steps

After completing the Digital Duties Form, the next steps depend on how the settlement is lodged.

ELNO settlements

The transferee’s representative retrieves and claims the ELNO lodgement in Duties Online, links the Digital Duties Form and calculates, acknowledges and certifies duty.

For detailed instructions, see completing an ELNO lodgement.

We manually assess complex transactions so you need to lodge at least 30 days before settlement. 

For ELNO lodgements, when the transaction settles, the ELNO transfers the duty payable to us and simultaneously lodges the titles with Land Use Victoria. 

Paper (non-ELNO) settlements

You submit paper settlements for assessment in Duties Online by selecting ‘Retrieve & Claim Settlement Statement (Paper Transfer)’.

Once the transaction is complete in Duties Online, the taxpayer or their legal representative must lodge the titles with Electronic Registries Victoria. 

Self-represented individuals

Once the Digital Duties Form is complete, you can resume your lodgement and select ‘Lodge’, which is in the blue drop-down menu under ‘Actions’ on the far right of the ‘Your forms’ screen.

We will manually assess your lodgement and notify you of the result by email.