Compare 2026-27 land tax across every Australian state and entity type. Enter your total taxable land value for bracket breakdowns covering individuals, companies, discretionary trusts, unit trusts, SMSFs, and LRBA structures - foreign surcharges included.
Land tax is calculated on the total unimproved (site) value of all your taxable land in a state, using progressive brackets. Each state has different thresholds, rates, and rules for different entity types such as individuals, trusts, and SMSFs. For a full state-by-state breakdown, see our land tax guide.
In most states, yes. NSW, VIC, QLD, and SA impose lower thresholds and/or surcharge rates on trusts (particularly discretionary trusts). WA, TAS, and ACT apply the same rates regardless of entity type.
No. The Northern Territory is the only Australian jurisdiction that does not levy land tax on any property type.
Foreign owner surcharges apply in NSW (5%), VIC (4%), QLD (3%), TAS (2%), and ACT (0.75%). SA, WA, and NT do not currently impose foreign surcharges on annual land tax.
The Northern Territory has no land tax at all. Among the states, NSW ($1,075,000) and SA ($936,000) have the highest tax-free thresholds for individuals, so a single investment property often attracts no land tax there. Victoria has the lowest threshold at $50,000, and the ACT taxes investment property from the first dollar.
Yes. Land tax on a property that produces rental income is generally deductible against that income in the year it is incurred, which softens the net cost for investors. Confirm the treatment for your situation with your accountant.
NSW and Victoria assess ownership at midnight on 31 December. Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia assess at midnight on 30 June. Tasmania assesses at 1 July. The ACT assesses quarterly on 1 July, 1 October, 1 January, and 1 April. Whoever owns the land on the taxing date pays the tax for the full period.
No. Your principal place of residence is exempt from land tax in every state. Land tax is mainly a tax on investment property, commercial property, and vacant land. In the ACT, land tax applies specifically to residential property that is rented or owned by a company or trust.
State revenue offices data-match against title registries, rental bond boards, and the ATO, so unregistered liability usually surfaces eventually. When it does, they can issue back-assessments for around five years plus interest and penalties. If your landholdings have crossed a state's threshold, register in that state rather than waiting for the letter.
Yes. Land tax is calculated per state and each state gives you a fresh threshold. Two properties in one state are aggregated and pushed into higher brackets, while the same two properties in two different states may each sit under the local threshold and attract no land tax at all. This is one of the practical arguments for diversifying a portfolio across states.
Land tax is the annual state-government tax on the unimproved land value of property you own above a threshold. Each state and territory sets its own threshold, brackets, and rates, and the rules for trusts, SMSFs, and companies differ from individuals. Investors building a portfolio across multiple states need to understand the land tax exposure before buying, not after the bill arrives.
This calculator shows the annual land tax liability across all states for individuals, trusts, SMSFs, and companies. Useful for comparing total ongoing costs between markets.
Land tax is calculated on the unimproved land value (the land only, not the buildings) as assessed by the state revenue office or valuer-general. Each state adds up the taxable land you own within its borders, applies its tax-free threshold, and charges progressive rates on the value above it. The more land you hold in one state, the higher up the brackets you climb.
The critical detail is that land tax is calculated per state, not nationally. Owning $1.5M of land in Victoria and $1.5M in Queensland generates two separate threshold calculations, usually resulting in far less total land tax than $3M concentrated in one state. Queensland tried to change this in 2022 by counting interstate landholdings in its rate calculation. The plan was scrapped within months after heavy opposition, and no state currently aggregates across borders.
Two other rules matter for investors. Your own home is exempt in every state, so land tax is mostly a tax on investment property, commercial property, and vacant land. And land tax on a rental property is generally deductible against your rental income, which softens the net cost. A $3,000 assessment costs an investor on a 37 percent marginal rate closer to $1,890 after the deduction. Confirm the treatment with your accountant.
NSW. The general threshold is $1,075,000 of land value, then $100 plus 1.6 percent up to the premium threshold of $6,571,000, and 2 percent above that. Both thresholds are now frozen. Indexation stopped from 1 January 2025, so as land values rise, more investors drift over the line each year without buying anything. Assessed on ownership at midnight 31 December, using a 3-year average of land values.
Victoria. The threshold is just $50,000, the lowest of any state. From $50,000 to $100,000 the bill is a flat $500, from $100,000 to $300,000 it is $975, then marginal rates run from 0.3 percent up to 2.65 percent above $3M. These rates include the COVID debt levy that applies from 2024 to 2033. Victoria also runs a vacant residential land tax of 1 to 3 percent of capital improved value statewide, and from January 2026 it extends to long-idle undeveloped residential land in metropolitan Melbourne. Assessed at midnight 31 December.
Queensland. Individuals get a $600,000 threshold, then $500 plus 1 percent, stepping up to 2.25 percent above $10M. Companies and trusts get a lower $350,000 threshold on a steeper scale. Only Queensland land counts toward your Queensland assessment. Assessed at midnight 30 June.
South Australia. The 2026-27 general threshold is $936,000, with rates from 0.5 percent up to 2.4 percent above $3,504,000. SA indexes its thresholds annually, unlike NSW. Trusts start paying from just $25,000. Assessed at midnight 30 June on site values.
Western Australia. The threshold is $300,000, with a flat $300 up to $420,000, then rates from 0.25 percent to 2.67 percent above $11M. WA charges the same rates whether you own as an individual, company, or trust. Perth metropolitan land also attracts the Metropolitan Region Improvement Tax of 0.14 percent above $300,000, which this calculator does not model. Assessed at midnight 30 June.
Tasmania. The threshold is $125,000, then $50 plus 0.45 percent up to $500,000, and $1,737.50 plus 1.5 percent above that. The jump at $500,000 makes Tasmania surprisingly expensive for mid-value holdings. Same rates for every entity type. Assessed at 1 July.
ACT. No threshold at all. Every rented residential property pays a fixed charge of $1,778 for 2026-27 plus marginal rates of 0.54 to 1.26 percent on the average unimproved value, billed quarterly. The saving grace is that AUV is a 5-year average and usually sits below the current land value.
Northern Territory. No land tax on anything. The NT is the only Australian jurisdiction without it.
Run $800,000 of land value through every state as an individual owner and the annual bills land a long way apart. NSW, South Australia, and the Northern Territory charge nothing, because $800,000 sits under the NSW and SA thresholds and the NT has no land tax. Western Australia charges $1,250. Queensland charges $2,500. Victoria charges $3,450. Tasmania charges $6,238. The ACT charges roughly $9,900 if the AUV were $800,000, though AUV usually sits below current land value.
Same land value, and the recurring bill ranges from zero to several thousand dollars a year. Over a 20-year hold at Tasmania's rates versus NSW's threshold, that single line item is a six-figure difference before indexation. This is why the state you buy in matters as much as the property you buy, and why the entity comparison table above shows all six ownership structures side by side.
Entity choice changes the land tax bill more than most investors expect, and the rules differ state by state. In NSW, a discretionary trust gets no threshold at all and pays 1.6 percent from the first dollar. On $800,000 of land, that is $12,800 a year for the trust versus $0 for an individual. In Queensland, companies and trusts start paying at $350,000 instead of $600,000, so the same $800,000 costs a discretionary trust $9,100 versus $2,500 for an individual. Victoria applies a trust surcharge from $25,000 of holdings, making the trust bill $6,213 versus $3,450. South Australia starts trusts at $25,000 too: $4,000 versus $0.
WA, Tasmania, and the ACT charge the same rates regardless of entity, so trusts carry no land tax penalty there. Unit and fixed trusts are treated more generously than discretionary trusts in NSW and SA provided they meet the fixed-trust tests. SMSFs generally receive the standard individual threshold, and SMSF land is not aggregated with land you hold personally.
There is a flip side to trust surcharges. Each new trust is a separate taxpayer, and in some states separate trusts each receive their own threshold, which is why some investors hold each property in its own structure. Whether that stacks up depends on the state, the deed, setup and accounting costs, and anti-avoidance rules. This is squarely a conversation for your accountant before you sign the first contract, because the structure chosen on property one shapes the next ten. Our guide to trust structures for property investment covers the trade-offs beyond land tax.
Land tax is charged to whoever owns the land at midnight on the taxing date, with no pro-rating for mid-year purchases. NSW and Victoria assess at 31 December. Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia assess at 30 June. Tasmania assesses at 1 July, and the ACT assesses quarterly.
Settlement timing around these dates has real money attached. Settle a Queensland purchase on 28 June and you own the land on 30 June, so the next full year's assessment includes it. Settle two weeks later and it first appears a year later. Contracts in some states adjust land tax between buyer and seller at settlement, and in others the registered owner simply wears it, so have your conveyancer check the adjustment clause before you exchange rather than after.
Spreading purchases across states is the biggest lever. Every state assesses only its own land and grants its own threshold, so three properties in three states can each sit under the local threshold while the same three in one state would be aggregated well over it. Diversification across markets is worth having anyway, because the best-performing state changes across the cycle. The land tax saving comes on top. Our guide to buying investment property interstate covers how to do it without setting foot in the state.
Entity selection per state is the second lever. The same trust that pays no penalty in WA or Tasmania pays 1.6 percent from dollar one in NSW. Investors planning multi-state portfolios often use different structures in different states, weighing land tax against asset protection, tax flexibility, and financing.
Beyond that, claim the deduction every year, check the land value on the assessment notice since valuations can be objected to within a set window if comparable evidence supports a lower figure, and keep an eye on threshold creep in states like NSW where the thresholds are now frozen while values rise. What we would not do is let land tax alone pick the market. A state with zero land tax and weak fundamentals is still a weak investment. Buy where the growth and yield data point, then structure the ownership so the tax drag is as small as it can legally be, with your accountant across the decision.
Not registering after crossing a threshold. Registration is your obligation, not the revenue office's. They data-match against titles, rental bonds, and the ATO, and back-assessments can reach about five years with interest and penalties added. If a reassessed land value or a new purchase has pushed you over, register before the letter arrives.
Concentrating the whole portfolio in one state. Aggregation quietly moves every extra purchase into a higher bracket. Investors who bought three Victorian properties through the 2010s discovered this when the threshold dropped to $50,000 and the COVID levy lifted the rates.
Choosing the entity without checking the state. A discretionary trust that is land tax neutral in WA costs $12,800 a year on $800,000 of NSW land. The right structure in one state can be the expensive one next door.
Forgetting the add-ons. Victoria's vacant residential land tax, foreign owner surcharges of up to 5 percent, and Perth's MRIT all sit outside the standard scales. If any could apply to you, price them in before you buy, not at assessment time.
Treating the bill as fixed. The land value driving the assessment is an opinion of the valuer-general, and objection windows exist for a reason. On large holdings, a successful objection can save more than most rate shopping ever will.
A property in Victoria with mid-range land value can attract several thousand dollars per year in land tax once landholdings push above the $50,000 threshold. The same property in Queensland (where the individual threshold sits at $600,000) often attracts zero. Across a 20-year hold, the difference can run into tens of thousands of dollars per property. For investors with diversified state portfolios, land tax is one of the bigger arguments against concentrating in a single state. See our investment buyers agent page for how we factor land tax into market selection.
Land tax also compounds differently to purchase costs. Stamp duty hurts once. Land tax arrives every year, rises with land values, and cuts directly into net yield for as long as you hold. Two markets with identical gross yields can sit a full percentage point apart in net yield once land tax is in the numbers, which is why we model it before shortlisting a market rather than discovering it in year two.
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