Family business concessions

Primary production and prescribed businesses are eligible.

Primary production means the business of agriculture, pasturage or dairy farming. See Chapter 2, Part 10 of the Duties Act 2001 for more information.

Prescribed business means a business involving solely an activity prescribed under a Regulation. Prescribed business activities are: 

• excavating and earthmoving
• framing pictures
• gunsmithing
• locksmithing
• manufacturing, processing and packaging
• printing and publishing
• repairing boots and shoes
• retailing and wholesaling, whether or not involving repairing or installing of goods sold
• upholstering
• operating as an undertaker or funeral director
• operating any of the following
  • beauty salon or barber shop
  • bus service
  • cinema
  • crematorium
  • engineering workshop
  • laundry or laundrette
  • newsagency, travel agency or real estate agency
  • repair and service workshop
  • rental business
  • restaurant or cafe
  • service station
  • sports complex or gymnasium
  • warehouse or bulk storage complex.

In these businesses, the concession applies to:

• the transfer or agreement for transfer of business property
• a partnership acquisition if the property of the partnership includes business property where the partnership is a family partnership
• a trust acquisition if the property of the trust includes business property and the trust is a family trust
• the creation of a trust, or trust acquisition on the creation of a trust, in regard to
  • business property
    
    or
    
    
  • an indirect interest in dutiable property if the dutiable property includes business property (and the trust is a family trust)
• a trust acquisition for a unit trust if the property of the trust includes business property and the unit trust is a family unit trust.

If the dutiable property includes residential land next to land used to carry on a primary production business, the unencumbered value of the residential land is taken to be nil.

Business property—what is it?

Business property is:

• land primarily used to carry on a business of primary production or a prescribed business
• personal property used to carry on the business on the land.

To claim the concession, all the criteria below must be satisfied. The:

• transferor or person directing the transfer is an ancestor of the transferee
• business for which the business property is used is carried on by the ancestor
• business is intended to be carried on by the transferee
• transferee does not acquire the business property as agent or nominee of another person or as trustee, other than in limited cases.

Duty must be paid on any consideration payable for the transaction.

If the business is that of primary production and no consideration is payable, no duty is payable.

If the business is a prescribed business and no consideration is payable, duty is payable only on the value of the business property that exceeds $500,000.

If you did not use a written document to formalise the transaction, you must lodge the following within 30 days:

• Concessions for family businesses—Form 2.5 (PDF 305 K) 
• Transfer duty statement—Form 2.3 (PDF 370 K) 
• Dutiable transaction statement—transfer duty—Form 2.2 (PDF 495 K).

If you used a written document, you must lodge the following within 30 days:

• Concessions for family businesses—Form 2.5 (PDF 305 K) 
• The original documents
• Dutiable transaction statement—transfer duty—Form 2.2 (PDF 495 K).

We will issue you with an assessment outlining how much duty you need to pay.