Chapter 10 of the Duties Act 2001 provides exemptions from a number of duties.

Corporate reconstruction exemption

Subject to conditions, transfer duty or vehicle registration duty is not charged where the transaction is carried out for a corporate reconstruction (see Duties Act, Chapter 10, Part 1).

A corporate reconstruction involves changing the structure of a group of related corporations to make internal adjustments to arrangements within the group.

The exemption is not available if the purpose of the corporate reconstruction is to facilitate the disposal of a particular asset or business.

Exempt institutions

The Queensland Government recognises the important contribution made by educational, charitable, public benevolent and religious institutions. To assist these organisations to continue their valuable work in the community, the Government provides exemptions from a number of duties.

Matrimonial instruments

An exemption from duty for particular transactions on the breakdown of a marriage or a defacto relationship is provided under Chapter 10 Part 3 of the Duties Act 2001.

Chapter 2 of the Duties Act 2001 provides concessions for transfer duty.

Rates of duty lists the rates for these concessions.

Duties forms are available for download.

Concessions for homes

Who can claim the home concession?

In general, if you buy a residence and live in it as your home, you can claim the concession.

If you have never owned a home before, you may also be entitled to an additional first home concession.

The concession is also available to transferees who are trustees of a trust, other than a discretionary or unit trust, the beneficiaries of which are individuals under a legal disability who will occupy the home as their principal place of residence.

A trustee who occupies the home as their principal place of residence is not eligible for the concession.

What conditions do I need to satisfy?

• You must buy or otherwise acquire the residence (or an interest in it) and move in within a year after the transfer date. This is known as your occupation date. The home must be your principal place of residence.
• If you are buying a home on acreage that will be used for residential purposes, the concession may apply. The concession does not apply to the value of any part of the land used to gain income.
• For the first home concession, you must never have held an interest in other residential land in Queensland or elsewhere, other than as trustee for another person, as lessee or as the holder of a security interest. You must also be at least 18 years of age, although you may be exempted from the requirement if the Commissioner is satisfied there is no avoidance scheme in relation to the transaction.
• If, before or within one year of the occupation date, you dispose of the land by:
  • transferring part or all of it
  • leasing or otherwise granting exclusive possession of part or all of it to another person, you must notify the Office of State Revenue (OSR) within 28 days, or penalties may apply. Do this by completing a Form 2.4 Reassessment - Home Transfer Concession and lodging it with the original stamped document on which duty was paid.

In these circumstances you will receive the concession for the time that you lived in the home. You will be issued with a reassessment of duty for the time following the disposal of the land. However, you will not lose the concession if you occupy the residence but subsequently leave it vacant for a period of time.

How do I claim a concession?

To claim the concession, complete a Form 2.1 Home/First Home Concession. Once completed, it must be lodged with the relevant contract/transfer documents for assessment with your solicitor/legal advisor or by posting the documents to the OSR or lodging the documents at the nearest OSR counter.

How much concession am I entitled to?

All claims are different, so we cannot give you a definitive answer here. You can get more information by contacting our Client Contact Centre on 1300 300 734. Alternatively, you can access the OSR calculators on this website .

First home vacant land concession

This concession applies to transactions entered into on or after 1 January 2007.

To claim the concession, complete a Form 2.7 Claim for Transfer Duty Concession – First Home Vacant Land. The form is available from the duties forms section of the website.

• The concession is available to individuals who are at least 18 years of age and acquire vacant land to construct their first home and occupy it as their principal residence.
• Concession amounts are shown in the rates of duty page of this website.

To calculate the duty payable taking into account the concession, go to the transfer duty calculators.

Qualifying circumstances

1. The home to be constructed on the vacant land will be the buyer’s first home.
2. There will be only one residence constructed on the vacant land.
3. The acquirer of the vacant land is an individual, not a corporation or other legal entity,nor the trustee of a discretionary or unit trust.
4. The acquirer of the vacant land is at least 18 years of age on the transfer duty liability date.
5. There was no building, or part of a building, on the land at the time of the acquisition.
6. The claimant has not received a first home vacant land transfer duty concession before, for vacant land other than the land on which the first home is to be constructed.

Trusts for persons under a legal disability

The concession may be available if the transferee is a trustee of a trust (other than a discretionary or unit trust) and the beneficiaries are individuals who are all under a legal disability.

If a beneficiary of the trust is under a legal disability solely because of being a minor (less than 18 years of age), the concession is not available to that person. However, the Commissioner of State Revenue has discretion to allow the concession for a minor in appropriate cases where the commissioner is satisfied there is no avoidance scheme in relation to the transaction. If you wish to have your circumstances considered, submit your completed claim form to the Office of State Revenue together with full details relating to the specific circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the vacant land.

Notifiable events

You must notify the Office of State Revenue if you receive a first home vacant land transfer duty concession, and afterwards, any of the following things happen:

1. you do not occupy the constructed residence as your principal residence within 2 years after the transfer date
2. you dispose of all or part of the land (by transfer, lease, or granting exclusive possession in another way) before occupying the constructed residence
3. in the first year after you occupy the constructed residence, you dispose of all or part of the land (by transfer, lease, or granting exclusive possession in another way).

You must notify the Office within 28 days after a notifiable event. You must also complete a Form 2.4 Reassessment - Home Transfer Concession and send it to the Office of State Revenue with the original stamped documents. The Office will then issue a reassessment of your transfer duty liability.

The Form 2.4 is available from the duties forms section of this website.

Unpaid tax interest and penalty tax

If you receive a concession or part concession for which you are not or no longer eligible, unpaid tax interest is likely to apply. Penalty tax may also apply depending on the circumstances and notification given. Unpaid tax interest and penalty tax may be calculated and imposed on the additional duty payable.

Change in circumstances resulting in loss of transfer duty concession

In what circumstances will I lose my full concession?

If you have received the concession for the purchase of your home and:

• before you occupy the residence (your occupation date), you disposed of the land by transferring part or all of it, or leasing or otherwise granting exclusive possession of part or all of it to another person
• you failed to occupy the residence as your principal place of residence within the year after the transfer date for the residential land,

you must notify the Office of State Revenue within 28 days. To do this, complete Form 2.4 Reassessment - Home Transfer Concession and lodge it with the original document on which the duty was previously paid. We will then issue a reassessment setting out the balance of the duty payable.

However, you may not lose the concession if you lease part or all of the residential land to the vendor or an existing tenant before you occupy it. The occupier must vacate the residence within six months of the transfer date, or no concession will be allowed.

Further, if you fail to take up occupation within one year because of an intervening event, such as a natural disaster, incapacity or death, you may not lose the benefit of the concession.

In what circumstances will I lose a proportion of my concession?

If you have received the benefit of the concession on the purchase of your home and within a year after occupying the residence, you dispose of the land by:

• transferring part or all of it
• leasing or otherwise granting exclusive possession of part or all of it to another person,

you must notify the Office of State Revenue within 28 days. As above, complete Form 2.4 Reassessment - Home Transfer Concession and lodge it with the original document on which the duty was previously paid. You will retain the concession for the period of time that you occupied the home, but will be issued with a reassessment of duty for the remaining part of the year.

Forms are available from the duties forms section of this website.

Note: You will still retain the full concession if you occupy the residence within the required time, but subsequently vacate it and leave it vacant.

Concessions for family business

The Queensland Government provides a concession for transfer duty on particular dutiable transactions by way of gift of dutiable property used to carry on particular family businesses of primary production and other prescribed businesses.

To what transactions does the concession apply?

• 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 for the acquirer
• A trust acquisition if the property of the trust includes business property and the trust is a family trust for the acquirer
• 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 for the acquirer.
• 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 for the acquirer
• If the dutiable property, the subject of the dutiable transaction, includes residential land adjacent to land used to carry on the business and the business is a primary production business, the unencumbered value of the residential land is taken to be nil.

What is business property?

• 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.

What conditions do I need to satisfy to claim the concession?

Specific conditions apply to each of the above transactions. Generally, the following conditions apply:

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

The conditions for each dutiable transaction are fully set out in sections 98-103 of the Duties Act 2001.

What types of family businesses does the concession apply to?

The concession may be claimed where the family business is Primary Production or a Prescribed Business.

Primary Production means the business of agriculture, pasturage or dairy farming.

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.

Do I have to pay any duty?

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 which exceeds $500 000.

What do I need to lodge?

Once the transaction has taken place, you must lodge an approved form with the Office of State Revenue within 30 days.

If you have not used a written document to formalise the transaction, you must lodge the following:

• Form 2.2 Dutiable Transaction - Transfer Duty; and
• Form 2.3 Transfer Duty Statement; and
• Form 2.5 Concessions for Family Businesses.

If you have executed a document, complete a Form 2.2 Dutiable Transaction - Transfer Duty and Form 2.5 Concessions for Family Businesses and return it with the documents for stamping. You will then be issued with an assessment outlining how much duty you need to pay.

The forms are available from the duties forms section of the website.

Concessions for superannuation

The Queensland Government provides superannuation funds with a concession for transfer duty on certain transactions.

When is the concession available?

A concession from transfer duty may apply to the following dutiable transactions:

• transfer of dutiable property between superannuation funds to effect a merger of 2 or more superannuation funds, or the splitting of a superannuation fund into 2 or more superannuation funds
• creation of a trust of dutiable property because of the variation or reconstitution of a superannuation fund.

The concession depends on whether the superannuation fund will become a complying superannuation fund within one year after the merger, split or creation of the trust.

What is a complying superannuation fund?

Complying superannuation fund means:

• a complying superannuation fund under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cwlth), section 42 or 42A
• an exempt public sector superannuation scheme under that Act.

How do I claim?

To claim the concession, you must complete Form 2.2 Dutiable Transaction Transfer Duty and lodge it with the following information:

• an explanation of the background to the dutiable transaction and the entitlements, if any, to be extinguished or created
• copies of the governing rules of the superannuation funds and any proposed amendments of the rules
• a statement of the dutiable property which is the subject of the transaction
• a copy of each instrument relating to the transaction
• a statutory declaration from a trustee of each of the superannuation funds concerned stating that, in the trustee’s opinion, the fund will be a complying superannuation fund within 1 year after the transaction.

How much duty do I have to pay?

Where the concession is allowed, the amount of transfer duty imposed is $20.00.

What happens if the superannuation fund does not become a complying fund within one year?

If the funds have received the benefit of the concession and do not become complying superannuation funds within 1 year, the trustees of the funds must notify the Office of State Revenue within 28 days after the first anniversary of the transaction.

The trustees must complete Form 2.6 Reassessment – Super Fund Transfer Duty and lodge it with the original documents on which the concessional duty was previously paid. The Office of State Revenue will make a reassessment to impose transfer duty on the transaction as if the concession had never applied.

Forms are available from the duties forms section of this website.