Stamp duty (or transfer duty) is a financial burden that may deter individuals and families from entering the property market and acts as a barrier to investment opportunities. It raises the issue of whether stamp duty is still appropriate in the modern economic landscape and calls for replacing stamp duty with a broad-based land tax are getting louder. This issue was considered by NSW Treasury in a recent report NSW Review of Federal Financial Relations -Supporting the road to recovery (the NSW Report).

Changes to the Land Tax Act 1936 (South Australia) come into effect on 30 June 2020. Amendments to the Act have been focused around changes to aggregation and additional tax on land held in trusts.

The NSW government has introduced measures to help soften the blow for landowners who pay land tax in NSW. The relief is to support residential and commercial tenants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Victorian Government has recently enacted changes to the land tax rules in respect of contiguous land in metropolitan Melbourne. From 1 January 2020, the principal place of residence (PPR) exemption will no longer apply to contiguous land unless the PPR land and the contiguous land are in regional Victoria.