Nothing sexy about this sticky tax web

Who’d have thought tax could potentially be an issue for the Sex Discrimination Commissioner or an example of women’s rights breaking an acceptable nexus between male and female?

I know many politicians and bureaucrats struggle to define what “female” actually means these days and some states only require a tick on an application form to officially change one’s gender regardless of biological block and tackle … but what could that possibly have to do with tax?

Well may you ask, but the question arose last week when I received a letter in the mail from the Queensland Treasury’s Revenue Department, informing me that following the latest unimproved land valuation on our coastal property, I could now be liable for land tax as of June 30 2025. Even if it was my principal place of residence I would have to register and submit a formal application to verify this within a relatively short time or I might be assessed on my half of the property’s value.

 Wind the clock back a couple of weeks and my wife received a letter from the same department also informing her that her share of the property had exceeded the lower limit for land tax but she was exempted and didn’t have to take any further action … What the —?

To provide some historical context, my wife and I have jointly owned a number of investment properties in the past, these were all subject to capital gains tax based on 50 percent of the profits and they were all sold before we moved to the beautiful Sunshine Coast 12 years ago.

We have lived here in our jointly owned home since then and have never rented  the property out or used it for business purposes.

Land tax had never been on my radar so my first thought was that this could be some extra money-making scheme introduced by a Labor State Government - Wayne Goss, Peter Beattie, Anna Bligh or Anastacia Palaszczuk … nope, a quick search showed it was actually introduced way back in 1915.

And what a money spinner it is proving to be in modern times with rapidly increasing land values and a scale of non-indexed tax rates that kick in at a relatively low level of $600,000 and rise rapidly after that. Judge for yourself from this table provided by the Queensland Revenue Office

Example 1: Total taxable value of $680,000
Tax band is $600,000–$999,999
Tax calculation = $500 + (1 cent × $80,000 excess)
= $500 + $800
Tax payable = $1,300

Example 2: Total taxable value of $6,400,000
Tax band is $5,000,000–$9,999,999
Tax calculation = $62,500 + (1.75 cents × $1,400,000 excess)
= $62,500 + $24,500
Tax payable = $87,000