Transfer duty and land tax are state and territory taxes, and every jurisdiction writes its own. The Regulatory Instrument Library holds 45 instruments that impose, value for or administer them. Six jurisdictions now levy duty under an Act titled Duties Act, made between 1997 and 2008, while South Australia and the Northern Territory keep stamp duty Acts of 1923 and 1978. Every jurisdiction except the Northern Territory levies land tax; New South Wales and Western Australia split it across two Acts.
Instruments as held on 23 September 2026. The article describes the instruments, not the rates they set.
Five families of instrument
The instruments that bear on property tax in each state and territory fall into five families. Duty instruments (12) impose transfer duty, often called stamp duty, on the purchase of land and other dutiable property. Land tax instruments (12) impose an annual tax on the value of land held. Valuation instruments (7) set how that value is determined, usually by a Valuer-General. Administration instruments (9) provide the common framework for administering and enforcing a jurisdiction’s taxes. Other (5) holds instruments that sit alongside them: the Australian Capital Territory’s Rates Act and land rent scheme, South Australia’s emergency services levy, and South Australia’s first home grants Act, which the library files with duties.
Land tax and duty instruments in the set, by jurisdiction and family
Count of instruments tagged to land tax or duties in the Regulatory Instrument Library, 45 in total. A jurisdiction showing none in a family has none in the set. Source: APN Regulatory Instrument Library, 23 September 2026.
The counts reflect how each jurisdiction arranges its law, not how much tax it levies. New South Wales, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory each hold eight instruments. Tasmania’s two are its Duties Act and Land Tax Act; its Duties Act is read together with a Taxation Administration Act of 1997 that the set does not hold.
Duty: six Duties Acts and two stamp duty Acts
Six jurisdictions levy transfer duty under an Act titled Duties Act: New South Wales (1997), the Australian Capital Territory (1999), Victoria (2000), Queensland and Tasmania (both 2001) and Western Australia (2008). South Australia levies it under the Stamp Duties Act 1923 and the Northern Territory under the Stamp Duty Act 1978. The title year is the year the Act was made, not the date of its current rules: Victoria’s Duties Act 2000 is in its 141st authorised version. The NT Government’s own guidance still calls the tax stamp duty.
Land tax: seven jurisdictions, two structures
Every jurisdiction except the Northern Territory levies land tax. The NT Government states it plainly: there is no land tax in the Territory, and there is land tax in every other state and territory. Among the seven that levy it, two structures appear. New South Wales and Western Australia each hold land tax in two Acts made in the same year: one that imposes the tax (the Land Tax Act 1956 and the Land Tax Act 2002) and one for assessing and collecting it (the Land Tax Management Act 1956 and the Land Tax Assessment Act 2002). Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory each hold a single Land Tax Act.
Land tax is charged on a value that another Act determines. Five jurisdictions in the set hold a separate valuation Act: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. In the Australian Capital Territory, the Rates Act provides for determining the unimproved value of rateable land.
When each was made
Read by the year in their titles, the oldest is New South Wales’ Valuation of Land Act 1916, followed by South Australia’s Stamp Duties Act 1923 and Land Tax Act 1936 and New South Wales’ two land tax Acts of 1956. All nine instruments made since 2020 are regulations; no Act in the set is younger than Queensland’s Land Tax Act and Land Valuation Act of 2010.
Land tax and duty instruments by the decade of their title year
Instruments in the set grouped by the year in their title, the year each was made. Amendments after that year are not shown. Decades with no instrument are omitted. Source: APN Regulatory Instrument Library, 23 September 2026.
A title year says nothing about how current an instrument’s rules are. The rates, thresholds and exemptions in these Acts are amended often, and the library holds each in its current published version.
The instruments, jurisdiction by jurisdiction
| Jurisdiction | Duty | Land tax | Valuation | Administration | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Duties Act 1997 Duties Regulation 2022 | Land Tax Act 1956 Land Tax Management Act 1956 Land Tax Management Regulation 2024 | Valuation of Land Act 1916 Valuation of Land Regulation 2025 | Taxation Administration Act 1996 | — |
| Victoria | Duties Act 2000 | Land Tax Act 2005 | Valuation of Land Act 1960 Valuation of Land Regulations 2024 | Taxation Administration Act 1997 | — |
| Queensland | Duties Act 2001 Duties Regulation 2023 | Land Tax Act 2010 Land Tax Regulation 2021 | Land Valuation Act 2010 | Taxation Administration Act 2001 Taxation Administration Regulation 2022 | — |
| Western Australia | Duties Act 2008 | Land Tax Act 2002 Land Tax Assessment Act 2002 | Valuation of Land Act 1978 | Taxation Administration Act 2003 | — |
| South Australia | Stamp Duties Act 1923 Stamp Duties Regulations 2013 | Land Tax Act 1936 Land Tax Regulations 2025 | Valuation of Land Act 1971 | Taxation Administration Act 1996 | Emergency Services Funding Act 1998 First Home and Housing Construction Grants Act 2000 |
| Tasmania | Duties Act 2001 | Land Tax Act 2000 | — | — | — |
| Northern Territory | Stamp Duty Act 1978 | — | — | Taxation Administration Act 2007 | — |
| Australian Capital Territory | Duties Act 1999 Duties Regulation 2023 | Land Tax Act 2004 | — | Taxation Administration Act 1999 Taxation Administration Regulation 2004 | Land Rent Act 2008 Rates Act 2004 Land Rent Regulation 2008 |
Acts are listed before regulations. A dash means the set holds no instrument of that family; it is not evidence that the law has none, except for land tax in the Northern Territory, which levies none.
What this does not show
This is a map of the instruments, not of the tax. It does not state rates, thresholds or surcharges, which change often and are better read from the current instrument or the revenue office; and it does not rank jurisdictions by how much they tax, which the instruments alone cannot show. Local council rates, which fall on the same land, are made under local government law and sit outside the set except in the Australian Capital Territory. The Commonwealth levies neither tax; its income tax and GST Acts, which the library also holds, are outside this set.
For the wider statute book behind housing, see What Governs Housing: The Statute Book, Mapped.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
