Land Tax in WA

Does anyone know if a property is held by a Trust, does it still enjoy the Taxfree threshold of 300k?

 

@Westminster is an expert after todays rant!

pinkboy

 

I can't see anything on this topic specifically but there is plenty of info here Land Tax

 

Oh, I missed a good rant!

 

Dont worry, it was in chat room. So you haven't missed it yet for round 2 in this thread!

pinkboy

 

Ha ha!
I may or may not have fallen foul of land tax aggregation. Still waiting for information from OSR and accountant.
It's a one corporate trustee with multiple trusts. It had been set up so that each Trust reset the land tax threshold but land tax assessment has just arrived and it's been aggregated together under the Trustee. Hopefully it can be sorted out otherwise it's seven times what it should be

 

Yes, no, maybe.
Depends on the state the purchase is in. Search land tax and your state of purchase and it should be answered in old threads here

 

I recall when I purchased a property in the trust, it was purchased by "<corporate trustee> as trustee for <trust>"... So it would make sense that the land tax is issued against the corporate trustee.

 

From the web, it states "
Property owned by a trust
Land owned in a trust capacity may be assessed separately from land owned by that party in their own right. If your assessment includes land that is held by a trust you need to advise the Office of State Revenue in writing in order to ensure that you are receiving a correctly calculated assessment."

Does it mean it can enjoy the tax free threshold ?

 

Yes in WA that is the case

 

But the Trustee is not the owner, it just acts on behalf of the Trust which is the owner??
Should get to the bottom of it today.
If we've forcked up then we'll have to set up the multiple trustees so there is one for each trust and learn and expensive lesson. (EDITED TO TAKE OUT MY PRE COFFEE TYPING) But if that is the answer then that is the answer.

 

The trustee is the legal owner. A trust is merely a relationship.

Having one company as trustee for multiple trusts is not a good idea.

Each trust already has to do a separate BAS and separate tax return so there should not be any extra work. Just extra ASIC fees. Changing trustees would be complicated though as conveyancing is needed, stamp duty considered, mortgages discharged new loans applied for ect.

 

@Westminster, do u have u have one trustee holding multiple trusts and thus u only have one taxfree threshold? So it's better to have 1 trustee company with 1 trust, rather than 1 trustee to many trust?

 

Fingers crossed! Let us know what the outcome is.

 

Sorry yes I spoke wrong when I talked about the BAS etc - don't know what I was saying - as we do BAS/tax returns for each one. Blame it on typing on phone before drinking coffee

 

Same rule in SA

 

How did you go with this WM? Did it get sorted?

 

Accountant has said that the set up is fine as it is and he has lodged an objection for it with OSR. If it turns out his advice to us is in not in our best interest then we will be seeking the accountant to sort it out.

 

This is actually legal advice because it is under state legislation. Tax agents are only able to advise on commonweath tax - Tax Agent services Act.

I wonder if the accountant's insurance will cover it.

 

Sounds like it could be an expensive fix for the accountant! At least it doesn't come out of your pocket