I'd like to make my job easier.

If you are buying a property this weekend, you can help.

How?

By not signing a Contract until you've had it reviewed.

If a bad clause can be removed, or a good clause can be included; then you will have less hassles to deal with during the buying process!

Buyers of Queensland property have enough issues to manage.  You don't want problems which could have been avoided in the first place!

Land Tax is affecting increasing numbers of property owners. 

This may not be important to you if you have never received a Land Tax bill.

However, when the combined value of your Queensland properties reaches the tax-free threshold, your first land tax bill won't be the highlight of your day!

If you are interested in the potential impact of land tax on your financial security, these brief comments may help.

There are changes happening in 2019 that will directly impact you: good, bad & indifferent!

You don't need to be told that the digital evolution is changing the way business is conducted, and therefore the practice of law.

You do need to be told that the digital evolution is also changing the practice of international cyber-crime - and that people like you are their target.

How does this impact you?  Many processes and systems are changing in the way that we will communicate with each other.

I'm not going to tell you here what these changes are today - as criminals are monitoring websites, social media platforms, emails etc!

What I will explain today are the changes being made by government agencies that will impact how you and I engage with each other in the future!

That's it for 2018

Christmas-New Year

Questions & Answers

Website Update: Land Tax

New Brisbane Address

Fine-tuning our information sharing

2019 should be interesting!

You may be aware that the Office of State Revenue is the Queensland Government tax collector. The OSR informed us last week that they are in the process of sending text messages to home buyers who received a transfer duty concession when they purchased their home.

When you buy a residential property to live in as your home, you pay a lower rate of transfer duty compared with what investors would have to pay for the same property. For first home buyers up to $500,000, no duty is payable.

It is expected that the OSR will be reminding home buyers of their obligations where their circumstances change within the relevant time period.

Where you were not entitled to the full concession, you may have to pay the higher amount of transfer duty to the OSR. In addition to the transfer duty, failing to notify the OSR of a relevant change of circumstances is an offence – where the maximum penalty is $12,615.

Trying to get useful information from the internet is about as easy as getting a glass of water from a fire hydrant!  If you haven't heard that expression before, you have now.  I heard that at a law conference last year.

I also heard a discussion on the radio about the ever-increasing need for professional advice due to the avalanche of information which people will be unable to properly decipher and use.

Why write about this?

I've just read an article published by a reputable national company involved with the real estate industry - not a real estate agency.

The topic was transfer duty (or stamp duty) - and it contained significant factual errors.

It's a concern because when information is shared by a well-known brand in the industry, it's likely that most of their readers will rely upon it and develop their plans based on the information.

Many smaller organisations may re-publish or share the information with their own readers - further adding to the spread of mis-information.

From 1 July 2018, you will find it more difficult to sell your house, land or apartment to foreign buyers.  Foreign people buying residential real estate in Queensland now pay even more duty to the Office of State Revenue (OSR) for the Queensland Government.

We have previously written about Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty (AFAD) - the additional duty paid by foreign persons when buying residential real estate.  Similar laws exists throughout Australia.

AFAD commenced on 1 October 2016, when an additional 3% of the purchase price was added to the amount of duty payable by foreign buyers.

From 1 July 2018, AFAD increases to 7%.

AFAD is an additional amount, as the foreign buyer is also required to pay the standard transfer duty which is payable by Australian citizens and permanent residents.

The Office of State Revenue has provided guidance as to how New Zealand citizens buying property will be treated in relation to AFAD.

It is common for homeowners to want to upgrade their home.

If you have been paying down your mortgage debt for several years and the value of your home has increased, you may want to buy a more expensive property in a better location.

If your family has increased with the addition of children, not only do you want to upgrade, but you need to upgrade to a larger home.

As some government charges for property purchases increase every financial year, this is a good time to look at the costs of selling and buying - from 1st of July 2018.

We will provide an update on the additional costs payable by foreign persons in a separate article.