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ARTICLE · 25 JULY 2015

Stamp duty update – Victoria

Holding Redlich
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The article discusses some recent Victorian decisions affecting the assessment of stamp duty on property and trusts.

AustraliaTax
Steve Aitchison
Steve Aitchison
Harriet Burton (Formerly With Holding Redlich)
Harriet Burton (Formerly With Holding Redlich)
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In this article we discuss some recent decisions affecting the important issues of what constitutes "consideration" for the purpose of assessing duty on land transfers, and what constitutes a change to the nature of a landholding trust, thus triggering a liability for conveyancing duty on the basis of a change in beneficial ownership. We also cover a recent case where the "off the plan" concession was disallowed, and significant penalties applied.

What is included in "consideration"

The High Court of Australia, in the recent case of Commissioner of State Revenue v Lend Lease Development Pty Ltd (and other Lend Lease entities) [2014] HCA 51, has held that duty should be assessed not only on the purchase price specified in the relevant land sale contracts, but also on other payments inextricably linked to the sale. The appeal turned on the central question - what was the overall "consideration", monetary and non monetary, for the transaction?

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