All transactions involving land, such as agreements to transfer, transfers and options to acquire land entered into from 1 January 2019 require a foreign transfer duty declaration to be completed. Each person liable to pay duty on the transaction must complete a separate declaration.
The completed declaration form must be lodged together with the transaction record (such as an agreement to transfer land) or retained by the lodging party if the transaction is eligible for self-assessment.
If there are multiple transaction records to complete a transaction (such as contract for sale followed by the transfer of land), a completed declaration is only required for the first transaction record if ‘no double duty’ applies to the second transaction record. For example, where land is transferred to the purchasers named in an agreement.
For the transactions below, a completed foreign transfer duty declaration must be lodged for each transaction record to complete the transaction:
- when a person is foreign at the date of the agreement but is not foreign at the date the property is transferred - lodge Form FDA42 ‘Foreign Transfer Duty – Change in Foreign Status’
- when a person is not foreign at the date of the agreement but is foreign at the date the property is transferred
- when a purchaser on an agreement substitutes their interest in the property to an eligible related transferee - also lodge Form FDA14 'Substituted Transferees'
- when there is a difference in the parties liable to duty or the division of property between the agreement and transfer
- when the purchaser on an agreement is an individual and the property is transferred to that person as trustee of an eligible bare or unit trust
- when the purchaser on an agreement is acting as agent for an undisclosed transferee - also see Transfer under agency relationship
- when the purchaser on an agreement transfers the property to a newly formed corporation - also see Newly formed corporation
- when the purchaser on an agreement transfers the property to a dormant corporation in which they intend to acquire the shares - also see Dormant corporation
- when the purchaser on an agreement intended for the property to be transferred to a manage investment scheme
- when there is an intervening transaction between the agreement to transfer and the transfer
