How duty is charged– public landholders
If an acquisition statement discloses a relevant acquisition in a public landholder, the duty chargeable on the relevant acquisition is 10% of the duty that would be chargeable, at the general rate, on a transfer of all the land holdings and goods of the landholder in New South Wales (calculated as if the transfer had occurred at the date of relevant acquisition).
For that purpose, the dutiable value of the land holdings and goods is the unencumbered value of land holdings and goods at the date of the relevant acquisition.
If an acquisition disclosed in an acquisition statement is an exempt acquisition, the duty chargeable under this section is to be calculated after deducting from the dutiable value of the land holdings and goods the proportion of that value represented by the value of the interest acquired in the exempt acquisition.
If the public landholder is a widely held trust, the duty payable under this section is also to be reduced by the following amounts (if applicable):
a) the amount of duty under this Act paid or payable in respect of a dutiable transaction in relation to the units concerned,
b) the amount of any duty of a like nature so paid or payable under a law of another Australian jurisdiction.
If duty is chargeable in respect of a relevant acquisition made by a person in a public landholder, no duty is chargeable in respect of any further acquisition made by that person in that public landholder.
Example
A public landholder has NSW land holdings and dutiable goods with an unencumbered value of $10,000,000 (the value of the land holdings as determined under the Valuation of Land Act 1916 is in excess of $2,000,000). A person acquires 95% of the shares on 1 December 2009. The person has made a relevant acquisition and is required to pay landholder duty. The duty payable on the unencumbered value of all the land holdings and goods of the landholder in NSW as at the date of the relevant acquisition is $535 490 (duty on $10,000,000 at the general transfer rate). Hence duty of $53 549 is payable (10% of the duty chargeable).
