(last modified 17/08/2009 8:42 AM)
Land tax and rates remission
The Heritage Act has provision for special assistance to owners of registered places through remission of land tax and rates.
The savings in land tax or rates must be spent on an approved list of conservation works to the registered place.
The approval procedures are lengthy and complex and require approval of the
- Heritage Council
- Minister for Planning
- relevant rating authority
- and in the case of Land Tax, the Treasurer.
Applications need to be in the form of a letter to chair, Heritage Council, with supporting documentation, at minimum:
- Evidence of Land Tax or rates bill, or estimate based on previous year’s bill.
- Costed schedule of works (prepared by heritage architect and quantity surveyor) that would be offset against land tax or rates savings
- Period of time for which remission is sought.
- How much has been spent by owner of their own funds on maintenance/repairs over the past 5 years
- Statement of what public benefits are expected from the proposed works.
Recent example
The Royal Arcade was successful in obtaining remission of Land Tax for a period of 3 years to fund restoration works to the Royal Arcade Annexe. This was an extension of an earlier land tax remission of 10 years from 1996 which helped fund the very successful restoration of the main arcade.