The Duties Amendment Bill 2008 (Vic) was introduced
into Parliament on 4 December 2008 to make various amendments to
the Duties Act 2000. The Bill proposes the following
changes:
Period for Payment of duty
The period for payment of the stamp duty, and lodgement of the
required forms will be reduced from three months to 14 days. For
land purchasers, this means you will only have 14 days to pay duty
from the date of settlement. Duty arising from the execution of a
deed will also need to be paid within 14 days. This amendment will
come into effect from the day the Bill receives Royal Assent.
Property leasing arrangements
Currently, certain lease arrangements allow purchasers to
acquire rights which are equivalent to ownership without being
liable to pay stamp duty. Anti-avoidance provisions will be
introduced to close this loophole so that a transaction utilising
leasing arrangements with certain characteristics will be subject
to stamp duty. In particular,
