Free Tool · All Australian States
Land Tax Calculator
Annual land tax for property investors in every Australian state — with multi-property aggregation, trust, company and foreign owner rules.
Annual land tax for property investors in every Australian state — with multi-property aggregation, trust, company and foreign owner rules.
Enter TAXABLE LAND VALUES — the unimproved/site value on your valuation notice, not the market price of the property. Don't include your own home (exempt everywhere) or primary production land.
Last reviewed 12 July 2026 · rates and thresholds verified against official FY2026-27 sources.
Land tax is an annual state and territory tax on the total value of taxable land you own. Unlike stamp duty, which you pay once at purchase, land tax arrives every single year you hold the land — which is why experienced investors model it before they buy, not after the first assessment notice lands in the mailbox. Every Australian jurisdiction levies it except the Northern Territory, which has no land tax at all.
The saving grace for most households is that your own home is exempt everywhere. Each state exempts the principal place of residence, and the ACT goes further — land tax there applies only to residential property that is rented out or left vacant, so an owner-occupied home sits entirely outside the system. Primary production (farming) land is also commonly exempt. In practice, land tax is a tax on investment properties, commercial land and holiday homes, and because it scales with your holdings it can quietly turn a marginally cash-flow-positive property negative.
The most common mistake people make with land tax is running the numbers on the property's price. Land tax is assessed on the unimproved or site value of the land alone — the value of the block with no house, pool, shed or landscaping on it — as determined by the state's Valuer-General or equivalent. That figure appears on your valuation notice or land tax assessment, and it is typically well below the market price of the property. A house that would sell for $900,000 might sit on land assessed at $400,000–$550,000 depending on the area, and an apartment's share of land value is smaller again.
Two jurisdictions smooth the number further. NSW applies a three-year average of land values, so a sudden valuation spike flows through gradually rather than all at once. The ACT uses the five-year Average Unimproved Value (AUV). If you feed this calculator the price you paid, you will dramatically overstate your liability — dig the land value out of your valuation notice instead.
Except in the ACT, land tax is not calculated property by property. The state adds together the taxable land value of everything you own within its borders and applies the scale to the aggregate. Thresholds are generous at the bottom and marginal rates climb from there, so the structure punishes concentration.
A worked Queensland example for a resident individual: one investment property on land worth $400,000 sits under the $600,000 threshold — land tax is nil. Add a second identical property and your aggregate is $800,000: the bill is $500 plus 1 cent for each of the 200,000 dollars above the threshold — $2,500 a year. Add a third and the $1.2 million aggregate reaches the next band: $4,500 plus 1.65 cents per dollar above $1 million — $7,800 a year. The third property alone added $5,300 of annual tax, more than double what the second one did. Yet the same three blocks spread across three different states could pay nothing at all, because each state aggregates only the land inside its own borders and each has its own tax-free threshold.
That is not a loophole — it is simply how eight separate tax systems interact, and it is a genuine (if secondary) argument for interstate diversification. Two wrinkles: South Australia aggregates your land and then formally apportions the liability back across each property, and the ACT does not aggregate at all — every property is assessed on its own AUV with its own fixed charge.
The same land can attract a very different assessment depending on who owns it:
Structure decisions are usually driven by asset protection, income streaming and capital gains tax — but the annual land tax drag deserves a line in that analysis, because it compounds every year you hold. Get professional advice before settling on a structure: unwinding one later usually triggers stamp duty and CGT.
Liability crystallises on whoever owns the land at a single moment in time. Sell the day after that date and you are still liable for the entire year in most jurisdictions — any adjustment between buyer and seller is a contract negotiation, not a revenue office concern.
| Jurisdiction | Assessment date | Value basis | General tax-free threshold |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | Midnight 31 December | 3-year-average land value | $1,075,000 (2026) |
| VIC | Midnight 31 December | Site value | $50,000 ($25,000 trusts) |
| QLD | Midnight 30 June | Unimproved (Valuer-General) value | $600,000 individuals / $350,000 companies & trusts |
| SA | Midnight 30 June | Site value | $936,000 (2026-27) / $25,000 trusts |
| WA | Midnight 30 June | Unimproved value (aggregated) | $300,000 |
| TAS | 1 July | Assessed land value (General Land) | $125,000 |
| ACT | Quarterly | 5-year-average AUV (per property) | None — fixed charge + marginal rate |
| NT | — | — | No land tax |
Five jurisdictions add an annual surcharge when land is held by foreign or absentee owners, on top of the ordinary scale:
Because surcharges are levied on the whole (or excess) land value rather than through the marginal band structure, they are disproportionately expensive relative to the base tax — on a $1 million NSW landholding the 5% surcharge is $50,000 a year, dwarfing the ordinary assessment.
This tool models the published rate scales for each jurisdiction and the main owner-type variations. It deliberately stays out of several rabbit holes:
This page provides general information only and is not tax, legal or financial advice. Rate schedules were verified against each state and territory revenue office as at 5 July 2026, but thresholds are indexed or amended most years — always confirm the current figures with the relevant revenue office and speak to a qualified accountant or adviser before making decisions based on land tax.