From 30 June 2020, the South Australian land tax regime will undergo substantial changes. These changes may have a significant impact on the amount of land tax payable and, in some instances, the amount of land tax payable can be reduced by taking action now.
As the first step in this process, RevenueSA is verifying the information they have for South Australian land holdings. The recent changes also introduced new requirements about what information you need to provide RevenueSA in relation to your land holdings.
This page explains the process that you can expect if submitting the Information Disclosure yourself. It is worth noting that many people are experiencing lengthy delays with the Portal.
What to expect if you want to complete the Information Disclosure yourself.
RevenueSA is requesting the following action via the Land Tax Portal:
In notifying RevenueSA that land is held in trust, you must provide evidence that the trust exists and that the land was acquired on behalf of the trust. To show the trust exists, you must provide a copy of the executed trust deed and any amending deeds.
To show that the relevant land was acquired on behalf of the trust, RevenueSA will accept any of the following forms of evidence:
If the above documents cannot be provided, RevenueSA will accept a minimum of two of the following documents:
The trust surcharge imposed on trust held land can be avoided by nominating the beneficiary(ies) of the trust as the land tax owner(s) of the land. In short, the trust will still be assessed on the land but at standard rates and the value of the land will flow through to the beneficiary(ies) and again be taxed (with a deduction for the tax paid by the trust).
Care must be taken in making beneficiary nominations as there can be unexpected land tax repercussions when the nominated beneficiary owns land, is a further trust, or is a related company. Beneficiary nominations also work differently for discretionary trusts as opposed to fixed/units trusts.
We would advise contacting Perks via the form below if you are unsure as to the full ramifications of making a trust nomination.
Company landowners, where the land is not held in trust, must also disclose whether they are related to other companies (whether the other companies own or do not own land). Specifically, company landowners must:
If you have any questions regarding the above, please do not hesitate to contact your Perks Adviser or fill out the form below.
Unsure about doing it yourself or have query? Get a Perks Adviser to answer your questions.
12/9/2019
This week the State Government announced amendments to the proposed changes to SA Land Tax.
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18/6/2019
In handing down the South Australian State Budget for 2019, Treasurer Rob Lucas announced several changes to...
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