A significant component of our responsibility to our customers, and all Victorians, is working closely with stakeholders – including the Department of Treasury and Finance, and the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel – to assist in developing the legislation we administer and ensuring the successful implementation of legislative amendments.
Part of our role is developing practical solutions to complex policy problems.
Crafting of legislation involves Cabinet, the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, the Department of Treasury and Finance, and State Revenue Office policy experts. Once an Act has been passed by the parliament, we ensure we are ready to administer it as efficiently as possible for our customers, with an emphasis on implementing systems and processes to make it easier for our customers to comply.
From the time at which the law applies in Victoria, we begin administering any changes to the law.
We also liaise with inter-jurisdictional colleagues in the areas of harmonisation and collaboration, and manage our statutory responsibilities in relation to freedom of information, privacy, the Charter of Human Rights and Ombudsman issues.
In 2020–21, notable legislative work included the State Taxation Acts Amendment Act 2020 in December 2020, which introduced changes to environment protection, taxation and valuation laws; the Gambling Regulation Amendment (Wagering and Betting Tax) Act 2021, which gave effect to changes to the wagering and betting tax; the State Taxation and Mental Health Acts Amendment Act 2021, which gave effect to revenue and tax relief measures; and the remaking of the First Home Owner Grant Regulations.
Amendments in the State Taxation Acts Amendment Act 2020
These included:
Duties Act 2000
- Brought forward the 50% land transfer duty concession for purchases of commercial or industrial property in regional Victoria to 1 January 2021.
- Increased the rate of livestock duty on sheep and goats over three years from 1 January 2021.
- Aligned the Victorian definition of a ‘green car’ for motor vehicle duty purposes with the Commonwealth standard.
- Excluded security interests in fixtures from the definition of ‘dutiable property’.
- Ensured partnership provisions apply correctly to multiple layered partnerships, where one partnership holds an interest in another partnership.
- Empowered the Commissioner to approve additional equity release providers who can access a duty exemption for their product, in accordance with guidelines issued by the Treasurer.
- Confirmed eligibility of vacant land for the first home buyer duty exemption and concession and extended the residence requirement for vacant land transactions.
- Prevented a transferee and transferee’s partner from accessing a first home buyer exemption or concession for a transfer if either of them previously received the exemption or concession.
- Extended the corporate reconstruction duty concession to arrangements involving both a consolidation and a reconstruction, and confirmed the concession is only available to consolidated groups under Commonwealth income tax law.
Environment Protection Act 1970 and Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018
- Increased Victorian landfill levies over two years from 1 July 2021.
First Home Owner Grant and Home Buyer Schemes Act 2000
- Excluded homes that have never been sold but have previously been occupied from being new homes for First Home Owner Grant purposes.
- Removed the time limit on the Commissioner’s power to vary an applicant’s residence requirements.
Gambling Regulation Act 2003
- Made various amendments to the wagering and betting tax provisions relating to GST treatment, free bets, foreign currencies and grouping.
Land Tax Act 2005
- Introduced an exemption for eligible social, cultural, recreational, literary and educational clubs (other than racing clubs) from the 2021 land tax year.
- Abolished special land tax.
- Introduced more consistent restrictions on deriving income from principal place of residence land, and addressed various administrative issues in the principal place of residence provisions.
- Confirmed penalty tax and interest on unpaid land tax are secured as part of a first charge on land and can be recovered from a mortgagee, lessee or occupier if there is a tax default.
Taxation Administration Act 1997
- Relocated the clearance certificate provisions from the Land Tax Act 2005 to the Taxation Administration Act 1997 to facilitate future development of a single property clearance certificate.
- Enabled the Commissioner to publish a statement to specify when a document is a ‘return’ for the purposes of the Act.
Valuation of Land Act 1960
- Gave councils requesting a supplementary valuation from the Valuer-General the ability to nominate a past date (within the current financial year) from which it can apply the valuation for rates or fire services property levy adjustment purposes.
More information about these amendments is on our website.
Amendments in the Gambling Regulation Amendment (Wagering and Betting Tax) Act 2021
These included:
Gambling Regulation Act 2003
- Increased the wagering and betting tax rate from 8% to 10% from 1 July 2021.
Amendments in the State Taxation and Mental Health Acts Amendment Act 2021
These included:
Duties Act 2000
- Introduced a new threshold and premium land transfer duty rate for transactions with a dutiable value above $2 million for contracts from 1 July 2021.
- Temporarily increased the threshold for the off-the-plan duty concession to $1 million for all home buyers, for contracts from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2023.
- Introduced a temporary 50% duty concession for new residential purchases in the Melbourne local government area, for contracts from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022, and a full exemption where the property has been unsold for 12 months or more since completion, for contracts from 21 May 2021 to 30 June 2022.
- Made amendments to cater for shared equity arrangements, where the state assists a homebuyer to purchase a home by contributing to the purchase price in exchange for an interest in the home or the proceeds of a future sale of the home.
First Home Owner Grant and Home Buyer Schemes Act 2000
- Established legislative authority for the Commissioner to administer home buyer schemes declared by the Treasurer, such as the Victorian Homebuyer Fund, which was announced in the 2020–21 Budget.
- Renamed the First Home Owner Grant Act 2000 to the First Home Owner Grant and Home Buyer Schemes Act 2000.
Land Tax Act 2005
- Increased the land tax rate for taxpayers with taxable landholdings of more than $1.8 million from the 2022 land tax year.
- Increased the threshold for general land tax rates from $250,000 to $300,000 from the 2022 land tax year.
- Extended the vacant residential land tax exemption for new residential developments to apply for up to two years, effective from the 2022 land tax year.
- Made amendments to cater for shared equity arrangements.
- Ensured land tax applies as intended to land held by a nominee on behalf of a partnership.
- Excluded unit trust schemes from the definition of a ‘discretionary trust’ for land tax purposes.
- Ensured land tax is correctly calculated in the case of pre-2006 land owned by a trustee of a discretionary trust that is used and occupied by a nominated PPR beneficiary.
Payroll Tax Act 2007
- Introduced a new mental health and wellbeing surcharge to apply from 1 January 2022 as a payroll tax surcharge on wages paid in Victoria by large employers with national payrolls over $10 million a year.
- Brought forward the increase in the payroll tax threshold from $650,000 to $700,000 to apply from 1 July 2021.
- Brought forward the reduction in the payroll tax rate for regional employers from 2.02% to 1.2125% to apply from 1 July 2021.
- Ensured the lower rate of payroll tax for regional employers applies correctly to schedule groups containing regional employers in bushfire-affected areas, who received payroll tax relief in 2020.