Stamp Duty Exemptions (TAS)

Hi all,

I was told the other day that one can avoid stamp duty if property is purchased from family.. So like a good little legal eagle I jumped online and looked up the legislation! So looking at this I might be able to avoid stamp duty if I purchase from a sibling, parent, grandparent or partner. Shame it doesn't include vacant land. I am posting for your thoughts today as this seems overly generous, but I hear that the theory is to keep family properties, in the family.

Of course investing is not about avoiding duty! I just found this unbelievable interesting!

Duties Act 2001 (Tas)

53. Exemptions relating to various transactions
c) a transfer of dutiable property as specified in
section 9(1)(i) or (j) but does not include land, made between persons who are relatives if the relative is –

(i) a child or grandchild; or

(ii) a parent or grandparent; or

(iii) a brother or sister; or

(iv) a spouse or caring partner; or

(v) a spouse or caring partner of a child, grandchild, brother or sister;

 

Legislation can be found: Tasmanian Legislation Online

Wow... All those years at Uni are finally paying off!

 

But does not include land.

I havent looked it up but probably Land here means land with a house on it and vacant land

 

From the definitions section:
land includes a stratum;


I think I will email to ask about this... If land includes every type of property, what on earth is exempt?

EDIT: "Thank you for your email. It is anticipated that a response will be issued by this Office within the next 14 days. However, this Office is currently experiencing a higher than expected volume of queries, so response times may exceed the 14 days."

 

When you buy a 'property' you are actually buying land with the house being attached to the land.notice how they call sale contracts 'contracts for the sale of land'.

 

I was aware of adding partners without stampduty... which may have biased my interpretation.

Fingers crossed the land title office can clarify.

 

Under basic property law, things affixed to the land can become 'fixtures' which are part of the land. There is a significant grey area around whether something fixed to the land has become a 'fixture', so many of the duties acts expressly define 'land' to include anything fixed to the land (whether a 'fixture' at common law or not). Very common in a resource context. A house is clearly a fixture and so part of the land.

Section 53(c) looks like it is really concerned with the transfer of business assets (excluding land).

 

Alas: Section 225 (which relates to intergenerational rural transfers).