Vacant Land Tax - Get the guide
We have a bit of a problem in Victoria, we've got a brand-new tax. Now, you mightn't have heard of this, and it could be a big worry if you're a property owner. It's not a new tax, but it's been expanded so much that it's now going to catch hundreds, thousands more properties. This is called the Vacant Residential Land Tax, and new legislation came in only in mid-December, but it applies this year.
In this short video, I talk about what this means and the exemptions that might apply to you.
To help you Millens have prepared a Vacant Land Tax Guide. Get it here
Need advice contact me or the team.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Ross Millen:
Hi. We've all got a bit of a problem in Victoria, and that is that we've got a brand new tax. Now, you mightn't have heard of this, and it could be a big worry if you're a property owner. It's not really a new tax, but it's been expanded so much that it's now going to catch hundreds, thousands more properties. This is called the Vacant Residential Land Tax, and new legislation came in only in mid-December, but it applies this year.
Well, it's always been there, but it's only applied to vacant residential properties in inner Melbourne and medium Melbourne. The medium ring around Melbourne. Certain suburbs were a special geographic zone, so it didn't collect a lot of tax. There were only a handful of properties that reported that they were vacant for more than six months during the previous calendar year. But now, the government, it's expanded the tax dramatically. So now it applies to vacant residential land anywhere in Victoria.
In addition, if you've got a vacant block of land, which of course you can't rent out, but it stays vacant for five years, then you'll be hit with the tax. And the tax is not just based on land value, it's 1% and in increasing amounts, 2% and 3% of the capital value of the property. Now, that's a huge tax, or could be a huge tax.
Now, there are certain exemptions. We can advise you about those. There's a holiday home exemption. There's if a property is used for business. So we're across the various exemptions. But the problem for you is you will be taxed come January next year on whether the property was vacant in this calendar year for more than six months. So you've got to be doing something now. You've got to find out about the tax, work out if it applies to any of your properties, and then work out if you're entitled to an exemption. Or if you're not, take steps to rent the property out, which is what the government says they want.
So we've prepared a short guide. If you want the short guide, see the details below. Remember, I'm Ross Millen from Millens. The whole team's here to help you with your land tax issues. Thanks.
