Corporate trustee duty

These are corporations that either hold property on trust for a discretionary trust, or hold shares in the trustee of a discretionary trust. 

A corporate trustee is unlisted and holds dutiable property (directly or indirectly) in Queensland as trustee. The relevant corporation does not have to be a Queensland corporation.

A person makes a relevant acquisition if they acquire a share interest in a corporate trustee or a corporation that has an interest in the corporate trustee and the acquisition is part of an arrangement under which any person obtains (directly or indirectly) a benefit relating to the property held by the corporate trustee on trust. In some cases, there does not need to be a purchase of shares.

Corporate trustee duty still applies at current corporate trustee duty rates even though transfer duty is no longer charged on Queensland marketable securities (shares).

See Chapter 3, Part 2 of the Duties Act 2001 (the Act) for more information.

Note: You must lodge a Corporate trustee duty statement—Form 3.2 (PDF 215 K) with us within 30 days of the acquisition being made.

Multi-jurisdictional businesses

If a discretionary trust contains business assets that are used in connection with other Australian jurisdictions, we will apportion the dutiable value between them as set out in sections 218 and 219 of the Act.

Exemptions

Corporate trustee duty is not payable if the acquisition:

• is for the sole purpose of giving effect to a change of trustee
• is by a family member who does not hold the shares as trustee, and the relevant trust was established primarily for the benefit of the members of a particular family (Commissioner must be satisfied)
• is represented by a dutiable transaction for which an exemption is allowed under section 123 to 126 of the Act.

See sections 224 to 226 of the Act for more information.