The Queensland Government collect Transfer Duty, also know as “Stamp Duty” on most property transactions in this state. It is collected by the Office of State Revenue. The purchaser is responsible for the payment of this duty. Purchasers may be eligible for just one of a number of concessions depending a number of factors. Factors affecting concessions including whether you are purchasing your first house or land, whether you will live at the property, your age and nature of other people purchasing with you. There are other factors.
For the best guidance on your eligibility for a concession at this point, you can use the “tester” at the Queensland Office of State Revenue web site to determine which, if any of the concessions apply to you. It is a guide only and does not replace the formal assessment by a professional to determine your exact stamp duty obligation.
Once you have guidance if any concession applies to your property purchase, you can use our calculator to forecast the amount of Stamp Duty payable.
For an estimate of the Transfer Duty on your property purchase, complete the form below and submit. An exact calculation of the Transfer Duty will be calculated during the conveyancing process.
The amount of duty that you pay is dependant on a variety of factors. The dutiable amount is determined using a formula which considers how much you are paying for the property (the purchase price). The greater the purchase price, the greater the duty. There are a number of concessions or exemptions that you may be eligible for to minimise this duty and you should always check with an expert before assuming eligibility for a concession and setting your budget.
In some circumstances you may not be paying anything for the property – does this mean you don’t pay duty? Unfortunately, not - while there may not be a monetary consideration or purchase price for the property you are still required to obtain evidence of market value and the stamp duty amount will be calculated from this. Evidence can include a valuation obtained from a certified valuer or a real estate agents market appraisal that references 3 nearby properties and what they sold for as well as a brief description of the property.
Instruments such as a transfer of land will require stamping prior to being accepted at the title’s office. Without the stamping insert, the titles office will refuse to accept he document and the change of name from the seller to the buyer will not be possible. The stamping insert can either be imprinted by the Office of State Revenue directly, or by a registered self-assessor. As registered self-assessors, we are capable of assessing your circumstances and calculating stamp duty and a variety of applicable exemptions or concessions to reduce or vary your stamp duty. The benefit of having a conveyancer like us complete your stamping is that our turnaround times are much quicker than contacting the OSR and you do not need to send original documents in the post where they have the potential to go missing. In order for us to claim your concession/exemption we will need to collect a declaration signed by the buyer confirming that they understand and agree to comply with the eligibility criteria. The criteria include things like moving into the property within a certain timeframe and continuing to reside in the property for a specified period of time or not disposing of the property (which would include either renting out or selling the property).
Both the self-assessment and claiming of concessions are part of our standard conveyancing retainer and do not incur additional fees.
Stamp duty and Transfer Duty are the same thing however as Transfer Duty is used by the Queensland Office of State Revenue it is the more correct term. Registration Fees on the other hand are entirely different and are a separate fee charged by the Queensland Department of Resources and Mines (the ‘Titles office’) at the time of lodgement. Registration fees are based off the purchase price much the same as transfer duty however the amounts are significantly less. If you are obtaining finance to complete your purchase, then your bank will actually deduct the Registration Fees from your loan amount. Both Transfer duty and Registration Fees should be considered when preparing a budget for making an offer on a property.
AFAD is short for Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty which is an additional duty that applies to buyers who are a foreign person or who are dealing with AFAD residential Land. You will incur AFAD if you are either a foreign individual, foreign corporation or the trustee of a foreign trust. A foreign individual is anyone who is not either an Australian Citizen or a permanent resident. There are special circumstances to consider when determining AFAD for a New Zealand Citizen using a special category visa. A corporation will be foreign if half of the ownership and controlling persons are foreign which is the same as foreign trusts. AFAD will be added ontop of the ordinary stamp duty amount and must be paid at the same time.
If you require assistance calculating stamp duty or registration fees then do not hesitate to contact our office.