New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LAND TAX ACT 1956 - SECT 5B

5B Surcharge land tax--residence requirement applying to principal place of residence exemption

(1) A person is eligible for an exemption from liability to pay surcharge land tax in respect of residential land for a land tax year because the land is the principal place of residence of the person only if--

(a) the person is a permanent resident at midnight on 31 December of the previous year, and

(b) the Chief Commissioner is satisfied that, during the land tax year, the person intends to use and occupy the land as the principal place of residence of the person in accordance with the residence requirement, and

(c) the person lodges a declaration with a land tax return required to be furnished under section 12 of the Principal Act for the land tax year to the effect that the person has that intention.

(2) The person must use and occupy the land as the person's principal place of residence for a continuous period of 200 days in the land tax year. This requirement is referred to as
"the residence requirement" .

(2A) A person does not use and occupy land as the person's principal place of residence during a period of the person's physical absence from Australia.

(2B) The Chief Commissioner may, in exceptional circumstances, waive the requirement in subsection (2A) in relation to a person's brief physical absence from Australia.

(3) If the residence requirement is not complied with by the person, surcharge land tax liability is to be assessed or reassessed as if the person's exemption from liability to pay surcharge land tax for the land tax year had never applied.

(4) The failure of the person to comply with the residence requirement is taken to be a tax default for the purposes of Part 5 of the Taxation Administration Act 1996 .

(5) Any interest that is payable on the tax default in accordance with Part 5 of the Taxation Administration Act 1996 accrues on the amount of surcharge land tax assessable to the person for the period commencing on the last day allowed for furnishing the land tax return for the land tax year and ending on the day when the assessment or reassessment referred to in subsection (3) is made.