At what point can Land tax be activated on a development

Hi

Scenario.

Already Own IP - pay land tax
2018 - demolish IP and develop / construct new townhouses.
by December 2018 - Obtain Certificate of Occupancy - retain &b lease out all Townhouses to tenants.

Q. In order to obtain Certificate of Occupancy does that force my hand to obtain Subdivision permit 'approved / endorsed'
or as I am the owner of all new townhouses and hold the title to the whole block I assume I would not need to have each townhouse subdivided/on own titles. (only need own titles if I plan to sell off individual townhouses down the track / in the future).....

Q. If I do not need to get subdivision done / endorsed etc, I assume that Land Titles Office (LTO) would not be able to calculate my land value or recalculate land value based on development completion until atleast council have recalculated rates/land value and issued me with amended rates.... effective from the date of council rates amendment
or
Q. Could LTO be as sneaky to back date a new LTO valuation to be effective from date at which I have received a dated Certificate of Occupancy

I also wonder could council backdate rates amendment to be effective from date of issued certificate of occupancy or only from the date at which they re examined and amended rates....

 

Land tax will be payable based on the valuation of the land on the assessment date. There are some concessions for builders tho so get legal advice.

 

Land is always taxable unless it is exempted.

So IP or Dev are both taxable. Issue with a development is that the land value can be affected by enhanced use of the specific lot and those around it. For example if all your neighbours start to build 5 level units and your lot is wide enough etc then your value may get enhanced yet you havent commenced a dev yet. Thats what occurs with unimproved land values. Equally your land may be too small and yet surrounding lots push up the square meter rate used by valuers for the whole region. You may then have grounds to object if your parcel is not suitable for the higher use.

I do know that delays in subdivision mean OSR can revalue based on the higher new use. Issue is you are bound by a land tax notice unless you object to the land value. So its in your hands to review that AND have valid data to object.