How Does Owning Land in Different States Affect My Land Tax Threshold?
Land tax thresholds are set by each state separately, not nationally. Here's how owning land in more than one state changes what you owe.
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Land tax is one of the ongoing costs of holding investment property, alongside council rates, insurance and property management fees. Unlike income tax, it isn’t a federal tax at all — each state and territory runs its own scheme, which matters the moment your holdings (or your plans) span more than one part of the country. If you’re still working through the basics of property investing, our guide to what property investment in Australia involves is a good place to start before you get into state-by-state detail like this.
How does owning land in different states affect my land tax threshold?
The short answer: there is no single “your” land tax threshold. Each state and territory sets its own threshold, applies it only to the taxable land you hold within that jurisdiction, and assesses you separately. A dollar of land value in Victoria has no bearing on your Queensland threshold, and vice versa — the two are never added together or offset against each other.
That has a practical consequence for anyone with property in more than one state. If you hold land in NSW and land in Queensland, you’re assessed twice — once against the NSW general threshold, once against the Queensland general threshold — using each state’s own valuation of your land in that state. You could sit comfortably under one state’s threshold and well over another’s, and both positions are correct at the same time. There’s no combined national land value test that nets the two out.
Why is land tax assessed separately in each state?
Land tax is a state and territory tax, not a Commonwealth one. Each jurisdiction has its own Act, its own revenue office administering it, and its own threshold and rate scale — there is no single national land tax law and no one authoritative page that covers every state. That’s also why land tax figures move on each state’s own budget cycle rather than a single national timetable, and why a threshold or rate you read about in one state tells you nothing about another.
Within a state, land tax is generally calculated on the total taxable value of land you hold there, not property-by-property — so two modest holdings in the same state can combine to push you over that state’s threshold even if neither would on its own. But that aggregation stops at the state border. It doesn’t reach across into another jurisdiction’s total.
What is the land tax threshold in each state and territory?
The table below sets out the general land tax threshold for individual owners in each state and territory, as at July 2026. Because these figures move with state budgets, each row links to that jurisdiction’s own revenue office — always check the current page before relying on a figure.
| State/territory | General threshold (individuals) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Victoria | $50,000 of total taxable Victorian land value (nil below; a $500 minimum assessment applies at exactly $50,000) | Trusts have a lower surcharge threshold of $25,000. A temporary COVID-19 debt land tax surcharge and the separate Vacant Residential Land Tax can both add to the bill above the general threshold. SRO Victoria |
| New South Wales | $1,075,000 of combined taxable NSW land value (nil below) | A progressive scale applies above this, up to a premium threshold of $6,571,000. These thresholds were frozen (no longer indexed annually) from the 2024-25 NSW Budget. Revenue NSW |
| Queensland | $600,000 of total taxable Queensland freehold land value for individuals (nil below) | Companies and trustees are assessed on a different, lower threshold — check QRO’s calculator directly rather than assuming the individual figure applies. Liability is assessed on land held at midnight 30 June each year. Queensland Revenue Office |
| Western Australia | $300,000 of aggregated taxable WA land value (nil at or below) | Perth-metropolitan owners may also owe the separate Metropolitan Region Improvement Tax (0.14% of the value over $300,000) on top of the land tax scale. WA Department of Treasury and Finance |
| Tasmania | $125,000 of assessed Tasmanian land value (nil below) | This threshold has applied since 1 July 2024. State Revenue Office Tasmania |
| Australian Capital Territory | No tax-free threshold — the ACT doesn’t use a threshold-and-scale model at all | Instead, a fixed charge (from 1 July 2026, $1,778) plus a marginal-rate scale on the property’s Average Unimproved Value applies from the first dollar. ACT Revenue Office |
| South Australia | $936,000 of total taxable South Australian site value for the 2026-27 land tax year (nil at or below) | A separate, lower trust threshold of $25,000 applies. A progressive scale applies above the general threshold, rising to $36,000 plus $2.40 per $100 above $3,504,000. Thresholds are indexed annually and gazetted by 30 June each year, so this figure applies to 2026-27 only. RevenueSA |
| Northern Territory | No land tax | The NT Government states directly that there is no land tax in the Northern Territory; stamp duty applies instead on acquisition. NT Government |
The gap between the smallest threshold (Tasmania, $125,000) and the largest (NSW, $1,075,000) is itself a reminder that “the land tax threshold” only ever means something once you name the state.
What happens if my land is spread across more than one state?
Because thresholds aren’t combined nationally, your total land tax position depends on how your portfolio’s taxable land value is distributed across jurisdictions — not just on the total value you hold overall. Two investors with the same total portfolio value could face very different combined land tax bills, depending on which states their land sits in and how it’s split across those states’ own thresholds and scales.
This is a description of how the thresholds mechanically work, not a reason to choose where to buy. A lower threshold in one state doesn’t offset the many other factors — rental demand, vacancy rates, prices, your own risk tolerance and goals — that go into a property decision, and land tax exposure changes with your own portfolio over time regardless of where you started. If you’re weighing up locations, our guide to researching property markets covers the data investors actually use for that; a licensed buyer’s agent or financial adviser can help you weigh your specific position.
Tax outcomes depend on your circumstances — speak with a registered tax agent before acting.
Does ownership structure change the threshold too?
Sometimes, yes — separately from which state you’re in. Victoria’s trust surcharge threshold ($25,000) sits well below its general individual threshold ($50,000), and Queensland assesses companies and trustees against a different, lower threshold than individuals. So the same piece of land can face a different threshold depending on whether it’s held by you personally, by a company, or by a trustee — on top of whichever state it’s in.
More broadly, individual, company, trust and self-managed super fund ownership each carry materially different tax and asset-protection consequences, and no government page ranks or recommends between them — which structure suits a given investor is a case-by-case question, not a general rule. Tax outcomes depend on your circumstances — speak with a registered tax agent before acting.
Does the ACT work the same way?
Not quite. The ACT is structurally different from every other state and territory covered here: it has no tax-free threshold at all. Instead of “nil below $X, a scale above it,” the ACT charges a fixed amount (from 1 July 2026, $1,778) plus a marginal-rate charge on the property’s Average Unimproved Value, from the very first dollar. The ACT also runs a separate, ongoing foreign-ownership land tax surcharge (0.75% of Average Unimproved Value per year) — a different charge again, layered on top of the settings above rather than part of them.
What are the settings in South Australia and the Northern Territory?
South Australia’s general land tax threshold is $936,000 of total taxable site value for the 2026-27 land tax year, with a separate, lower trust threshold of $25,000. A progressive scale applies above the general threshold. Because RevenueSA re-indexes both thresholds annually — based on movements in property site values as determined by the Valuer-General, gazetted by 30 June each year — the $936,000 figure is specific to 2026-27 and shouldn’t be assumed to carry into future years without checking RevenueSA directly.
The Northern Territory doesn’t levy a general land tax at all. The NT Government’s own property pages state this directly, distinguishing the NT from every other state and territory covered above. Stamp duty still applies on acquisition in the NT — it’s the absence of an ongoing land tax that sets it apart, not an absence of property-related tax generally.
A general point worth knowing: your main home is usually exempt
Every state and territory covered above exempts a genuine principal place of residence from ordinary land tax, though the exact test for what counts differs state by state. Land tax mainly bites on investment properties, holiday homes and vacant land — not the home you actually live in.
Where to get help with your specific position
None of the figures above are personal advice, and this article can’t tell you what your own land tax position will be — that depends on exactly what you hold, where, and in what structure, all of which change over time. A registered tax agent can work through your actual numbers; if you’re also weighing ownership structure or a new purchase, a licensed financial adviser or buyer’s agent can help you bring the full picture together.
