Sheet index · NSW and Victoria · Tax from the ATO
Sell your land: the tax and the title when it isn’t your home
A vacant block, a farm, a lot you have just subdivided or land held as an investment can each raise questions of their own when sold: whether GST applies, whether the buyer withholds some of it, how capital gains are worked out, which approvals a subdivision needs, what the contamination registers say, and where the water rights sit. This guide sets out six of them, one to a sheet, from the ATO’s pages and the NSW and Victorian governments’ own.
A guide published by Dotto. General information, not tax, legal or financial advice: the ATO’s pages are the place to check tax, and each state’s own bodies, named on every sheet, are the place to check the rest.
The map, square by square
Row 1 is tax, from the ATO. Row 2 is the land itself (its title, its soil and its water), from NSW and Victoria, each state from its own pages.
- Square A1GST and the margin schemeWhen does a land sale carry GST, and how can the margin scheme lower it?From ATO
- Square B1GST withholding at settlementWhen does the buyer pay part of the price straight to the ATO?From ATO
- Square C1Capital gains on landWhat is particular about capital gains on a vacant block or a subdivided lot?From ATO
- Square A2Subdividing before you sellWhich approvals turn one lot into two, in NSW and in Victoria?From NSW Planning Portal · planning.vic.gov.au
- Square B2Contaminated landWhere are the public registers, and what must a Victorian seller tell a buyer?From NSW EPA · EPA Victoria
- Square C2Water entitlementsWhy can the water go one way and the land another?From WaterNSW · Victorian Water Register
Five lines from the legend
One rule from each of five sheets, to show the ground they cover. Each sheet has the detail and the source.
In the ATO’s meaning for GST, vacant land is not residential property. A buyer of potential residential land (land that could be used to build new homes) may have to withhold GST at settlement and pay it straight to the ATO: GST withholding at settlement.
Costs of owning an asset, such as rates and land taxes, can be included in its cost base for capital gains tax only when they cannot be deducted, the asset was acquired on or after 21 August 1991, and the cost base is not being used to work out a capital loss; the ATO’s example of when that happens is vacant land: capital gains on land.
Subdividing a block makes two or more separate assets for capital gains tax, each treated as acquired when the original land was: subdividing before you sell.
In Victoria, a landowner selling land has an obligation to disclose known contamination to the buyer: contaminated land.
A Victorian water share can be bought and sold separately from land, and does not have to stay with the property when the land is sold: water entitlements.
Five public registers
The registers the land sheets refer to, and who keeps each one.
| Register | Kept by | Sheet |
|---|---|---|
| List of notified sites | NSW EPA, published monthly | B2 |
| Record of notices | NSW EPA | B2 |
| Priority Sites Register | EPA Victoria, and shown on the Victoria Unearthed map | B2 |
| Water Access Licence Register | NSW Land Registry Services, on behalf of the minister | C2 |
| Victorian Water Register | The Victorian Water Registrar | C2 |