Tasmania’s 2026 Duty reforms: what you need to know
The Tasmanian Parliament has passed the Taxation and Related Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2026 (Bill), introducing a range of reforms to the Duties Act 2001 (Tas), together with related amendments to Tasmania’s land tax and taxation administration legislation.
The reforms impact foreign investment and corporate restructures, farming families, family trusts, deceased estates, separating couples and business owners across Tasmania.
Changes to intergenerational rural transfer duty
Historically, farming families transferring rural land through trusts could encounter difficulties satisfying the exemption requirements because of the way beneficiaries were defined in trust deeds.
The amendments provide additional flexibility by permitting trust deeds to be amended to remove beneficiaries where necessary, introducing a six-month period (with scope for extension) to rectify trust structures and creating a reassessment and refund mechanism where duty has already been paid.
FIDS relief for smaller residential developments
Foreign investors in Tasmanian residential property are currently subject to a foreign investor duty surcharge (FIDS). Relief is available from FIDS for certain foreign developers who are based in Tasmania and make contributions of “relevant dwellings”.
Under the Bill, the dwelling threshold for relief from FIDS is reduced from 50 relevant dwellings to 10 relevant dwellings. The amendment applies retrospectively from 1 July 2026.
The reduction significantly broadens the availability of relief from FIDS and opens the concession to smaller residential developments that previously fell below the threshold.
Corporate group restructures
The Bill introduces several changes to the duty exemptions available for corporate restructuring and consolidation.
Previously, eligibility for exemption was restricted by requirements that companies remain within the same corporate group for specified periods before and after the transaction. Those requirements have now been removed. The amendments also:
- remove the pre-association test;
- remove the post-association test;
- extend the exemption to companies limited by guarantee; and
- allow relief where the transaction is undertaken to establish a corporate group.
These amendments should provide greater flexibility for corporate restructures, succession planning, asset protection exercises and business acquisitions.
Public road duty exemption
Changes have been made to the duty exemption provisions for the transfer of public roads.
The exemption will now extend to land intended to be used as a public road, expanding the exemption beyond land that has already become a public road. This avoids the unintended circumstances where land the subject of a transfer may not have become a road until after the transfer was completed, thus possibly being subject to duty, notwithstanding it was always intended as a public road.
The changes introduce a 24-month clawback mechanism, where land does not ultimately become a public road.
These amendments may be relevant to subdivision developers, local government projects and transactions involving road widening or road reserve acquisitions.
Other changes
The Bill also contains several additional reforms, including:
- expansion of relationship breakdown duty exemptions to transfers made under family law arbitration awards;
- expansion of duty concessions available in certain deceased estate and intestacy scenarios;
- extension of superannuation duty concessions to self-managed superannuation funds;
- amendments to landholder duty offset provisions;
- updates to foreign person definitions; and
- reforms to reassessment, assessment withdrawal and refund processes, including the ability to seek refunds without first lodging a formal objection
If you are considering a transaction involving property in Tasmania or would like advice on how these recent legislative changes may affect you, please contact our team.
