Folio 3 · The state accounts
Land tax by state
Land tax is a state and territory tax, so each revenue office sets its own counting date, threshold and rates, and the home you live in is generally left out. Rental properties are among the land the offices name as taxable, and the ATO lets a landlord claim the bill as a deduction for the year it relates to.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Thresholds and rates change; those below are as at October 2026, from each office’s own page, linked in the table. How the land is owned, alone, jointly, or through a company or trust, can change the calculation, as each office’s pages explain, so the revenue office is the place to check your own position.
- Folio
- 3 of 6
- Rules
- State and territory revenue offices; the ATO for the deduction
- Pages
- Each office’s land tax page, linked in the table
- Checked against the sources on 8 October 2026
One line for each state
The table reads each office’s own page, one line each. It gives the threshold for an individual owner only; companies, trusts and foreign or absentee owners have their own rules.
| State | Revenue office | The date that counts | Threshold for an individual | Also on its pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Revenue NSW | See Revenue NSW | See Revenue NSW | Its land tax pages set out the thresholds and rates, and exemptions such as for a principal place of residence. |
| Victoria | State Revenue Office | The owner of the land at midnight on 31 December of the previous year pays. | Total taxable value of $50,000 or more, from 1 January 2024 ($25,000 or more for trusts). | Selling during the year leaves you responsible for that full year’s land tax. Notices generally issue between January and June, due 12 weeks after issue. |
| Queensland | Queensland Revenue Office | Freehold land you own at midnight on 30 June each year. | Total taxable value of $600,000 or more at 30 June, counting land owned solely and your share of land owned with others. | Values come from the annual valuation issued by the Valuer-General; an owner may qualify for a home exemption on land, or part of it, that they use as their home. |
| Western Australia | Department of Treasury and Finance | Land you owned at midnight on 30 June. | Land valued in excess of $300,000. | Land owned jointly is generally assessed separately from land you own alone. If you sell between 1 July and 30 June, you are still liable based on the previous 30 June. Perth metropolitan land may also carry metropolitan region improvement tax. |
| Tasmania | State Revenue Office of Tasmania | Land classified as General Land at 1 July each year. | Nil below a total land value of $125,000, on the rates it lists from 1 July 2025. | Rental properties are among the land it names as taxable; land classified as Principal Residence Land is not subject to land tax. |
| Australian Capital Territory | ACT Revenue Office | Assessed quarterly, on the property’s status at 1 July, 1 October, 1 January and 1 April. | No threshold is listed: a fixed charge ($1,778 from 1 July 2026) plus a valuation charge on the average unimproved value. | Applies to residential properties that are not a principal place of residence, such as rented or vacant ones, and not to commercial properties. An owner has 30 days to notify the office when a property becomes liable. |
For South Australia, see RevenueSA’s land tax pages. The Northern Territory isn’t in the table; check with the Northern Territory Government.
What the dates mean at a sale
Each office counts on a set day, so what matters is who owns the land on that day. Two offices spell out the effect for the seller: in Victoria, someone who sells during the year stays responsible for that full year’s land tax, and in Western Australia a seller is still liable based on ownership at the previous 30 June. The ACT works differently again, charging by the quarter, with no daily pro-rating within a quarter.
Holdings are added together
The threshold is tested against the total of your taxable land in that state, not each property alone. Victoria taxes the total value of taxable land you own there; Queensland the total taxable value of your freehold land, including your share of land owned with others; Western Australia aggregates the values of every lot held by the same owners. Ownership shapes the count: Western Australia generally assesses land you own jointly with another person separately from land you own alone, and Victoria treats each different combination of owners as a separate joint ownership.
The value they use
Most offices tax the land, not the house on it. Western Australia uses the unimproved value set by the Valuer-General, and taxes the lesser of the current value or 150% of the previous year’s. Victoria uses site values provided by the Valuer-General, and Queensland the annual land valuation the Valuer-General issues. The ACT uses the average unimproved value over up to 5 years.
Foreign and absentee owners
Victoria has an absentee owner surcharge, Queensland separate absentee rates, Tasmania a foreign investor land tax surcharge that may apply to general land bought on or after 1 July 2022, and the ACT a foreign ownership surcharge. Each is on the office’s own pages.
The ATO’s side of the bill
Land tax on a property that earns rent is a deduction, and the ATO is specific about timing: it is claimed in the income year the liability relates to, not the year it is paid.
- An assessment covering an earlier year, paid in arrears, means amending the return for that earlier year.
- In the year you start living in the property, or sell it, the land tax deduction doesn’t need to be apportioned.
- Any land tax adjustment on a sale is declared as rental income.
- For a holiday home that is also rented, land tax is an ownership expense, deductible only if the home is used, or held for use, mainly to produce rent.
Before the first tenant moves in, the ATO says land tax can also be claimed if you are holding the property to produce rental income, though generally not while it is vacant land under the ATO’s vacant land rules, before it can be lived in and is held to earn rental income. Folio 1 sets out that rule.