Queensland Land Tax for Expats: Are You an “Absentee,” and What Does It Cost?

If you own an investment property in Queensland and you’ve moved overseas, there’s a state tax quietly ticking away in the background that has nothing to do with the ATO. Land tax. And buried in the Queensland land tax rules is a word that can cost you real money, “absentee.” The good news is that the rules genuinely shifted in expats’ favour a few years back. The less good news is that a lot of the advice still floating around about it is out of date, and the detail matters. So let’s sort out where you actually stand.

One quick note on swim-lanes. Technically this is not our swim-lane. Land tax is a Queensland state tax, assessed and collected by the Queensland Revenue Office, not the federal ATO. We’re registered tax agents and we’ll explain how it works and how it fits with your wider tax position, but the assessment itself, and any objection to a land valuation, is the territory of the Queensland State Revenue Office. We’ll point you there where that’s the right move.

First, what land tax actually taxes (and what it doesn’t)

Worth understanding what land tax is actually charged on, because it’s easy to assume (reasonably enough, given the valuation lands in your mailbox every year and tends to rise with the market) that it’s a tax on what your property is worth. It’s a little more specific than that. Queensland land tax is based on the taxable value of the land itself, drawn from the annual land valuation issued by the Queensland Valuer-General.

That land value will often move broadly in step with the wider property market, so it can certainly feel market-linked. But the building, the renovations and the kitchen you lovingly over-capitalised on aren’t separately counted in the figure being taxed; it’s the land.

For most suburban investment properties that valuation is a site-value concept (rural land is valued differently, as unimproved value), and the taxable value is generally smoothed using a three-year average rather than swinging with a single year’s result.

If you think the land valuation itself is wrong, that objection belongs in the valuation system (with the Valuer-General, within the objection window), not with the ATO and not in a strongly worded email to your property manager.

Queensland assesses your land tax based on what you own at midnight on 30 June each year, and it adds up (aggregates) the taxable value of all your Queensland land under the same ownership. Your principal place of residence is generally exempt, so land tax mainly bites on investment properties, holiday homes and vacant land.

One genuinely useful point for expats with a rental property: land tax on an income-producing investment property is generally deductible against your rental income for Australian income tax purposes. The timing can depend on when the liability arises under the state rules, not just when the assessment notice finally wanders into your inbox. So it’s a holding cost, but at least it’s not always a dead loss.

And one myth to put to bed, because it caused a lot of panic a few years ago: Queensland at one point announced a plan to count your interstate landholdings when working out your Queensland land tax (the “interstate aggregation” measure). It was scrapped before it ever started. Queensland land tax is calculated on your Queensland land only. Your place in Sydney doesn’t come into the Queensland land tax equation.

The thresholds: individuals get a much better deal

Who owns the land matters enormously, because the tax-free thresholds differ:

• Individuals get a tax-free threshold of $600,000. You only pay Queensland land tax once your total taxable Queensland land crosses that line.
• Companies and most trustees get a much lower threshold of $350,000, and pay at higher rates. (One technical carve-out: a trustee of a special disability trust is treated like an individual, with the $600,000 threshold. For ordinary companies, family trusts, unit trusts and SMSF trustees, though, the lower threshold applies.) This is the recurring trap for people who’ve tucked a property into a company or trust without thinking about land tax: you lose a big chunk of the threshold and pay more, sooner.

So the ownership structure you chose (or inherited from some long-ago advice) can quietly cost you every single year. That’s worth a look in its own right.

The “absentee” surcharge: the bit that used to sting expats

Here’s the part that generates all the questions. On top of the normal rates, Queensland charges an extra surcharge on “absentee” owners. The current absentee surcharge is 3% on the taxable value of land above $350,000 (so the same $350,000 starting point as companies and trusts), on top of the ordinary land tax. It’s not trivial: on a block with a taxable land value of $400,000, an absentee pays land tax under the absentee rates, plus an extra 3% surcharge on the $50,000 above the $350,000 threshold. The QRO’s own maths gets you to about $1,500 of pure surcharge, on top of the ordinary absentee land tax, every year, for as long as the status applies. Like a subscription service nobody asked for.

The crucial question, then, is who counts as an “absentee.” And this is exactly where the rules changed in favour of Australian expats, and where a lot of the “1.5% surcharge” information still floating around online is now wrong on the rate and muddled on the detail.

The good news that’s actually true: Australian citizens generally aren’t absentees

Here’s the part worth being clear and accurate about. Under the current QRO rules, an Australian citizen who lives or works overseas is generally not treated as an absentee for Queensland land tax. The absentee surcharge no longer applies to Australian citizens (or Australian permanent residents) just because they’ve gone overseas. So if you’re an Aussie citizen with an investment property in Queensland and you’ve taken a job in Singapore or London, the absentee surcharge generally isn’t your problem, and you’re generally assessed at the ordinary individual rates and threshold.

That’s a genuine and valuable distinction from the days when being overseas on 30 June, or away for more than six months, could land an Australian with the surcharge. On that front, the common headline you’ll see (“expats are no longer absentees”) is broadly right. It’s just the surrounding detail (the rate, and who’s still caught) that needs correcting.

But don’t celebrate too early: who IS still caught

This is where accuracy matters, because “Australian citizens are fine” is not the same as “nobody is caught,” and the structure you hold the land in can pull you straight back into surcharge territory. The absentee and foreign surcharges still very much apply to some owners:

• Non-citizens without a permanent visa. Broadly, if you’re not an Australian citizen and don’t hold a permanent visa, you can be an absentee if you don’t usually live in Australia, or you were absent on 30 June, or away for more than six months in the year. New Zealand citizens should be especially careful here: the QRO specifically includes New Zealand citizens in the foreign-individual category, and a special category visa isn’t the same thing as a permanent visa for these rules, so a Kiwi who doesn’t usually live in Australia can fall into absentee territory.
• Foreign companies and trustees of foreign trusts. This is the big one for expats who hold Queensland land through a structure. Separately from the absentee rules, Queensland imposes a land tax foreign surcharge of 3% on foreign companies and trustees of foreign trusts, on taxable land of $350,000 or more. So if you (an Australian citizen) would have been fine owning the property in your own name, but you hold it through a foreign company or a foreign trust, the foreign surcharge can apply to that entity. The familiar warning that the relief “won’t apply if you own under a trust or company” is pointing at exactly this, and it remains true in substance: the favourable individual treatment is for individuals, not structures.

There’s a narrow carve-out worth knowing for some foreign individuals working overseas. The QRO says individual (non-absentee) rates can continue to apply where you’re a Commonwealth or state public officer absent in the performance of your duties, or where you worked for your Australian employer for at least one continuous year before being directed by that employer to work overseas for less than five years. The paperwork matters (the QRO expects Form LT16 and supporting employment documents), and in the non-public-officer cases, if the overseas stint stretches beyond five years you can be reassessed as an absentee for the whole period. If that might be you, it’s worth checking rather than assuming.

If your status changes, you have to tell them

This part trips people up. If you become an absentee (or your circumstances change) and your taxable Queensland land is $350,000 or more, you’re generally required to notify the QRO, within a month of moving overseas, using their absentee/resident status declaration (Form LT16).

Interest and penalties can apply if you don’t. If you’re relying on the public-officer or Australian-employer overseas-work arrangement, there’s a second reminder: the QRO says you must update them within 28 days if you stop working for that employer, or if the overseas work runs beyond five years in the non-public-officer cases. Equally, if you move back to Australia permanently, you tell them so you can be reassessed at the individual rates.

The system runs on you keeping the QRO informed; staying quiet and hoping is not a strategy, particularly when revenue authorities have more data and compliance tools than most people assume.

A quick word on the relief rules (because they’ve changed)

If you’re dealing with the foreign surcharge on a company or trust, be aware that Queensland changed its surcharge-relief system in late 2025: the QRO issued new and updated rulings effective 15 December 2025.

For land tax foreign surcharge liabilities arising on or after 30 June 2026, the new exemption framework applies; for earlier liabilities, the former “ex gratia relief” framework is the one the QRO refers to. Same surcharge, different doorway. Importantly, the relief pathways are aimed mainly at foreign entities making a significant contribution to the Queensland economy (think genuine residential development), not passive buy-and-hold investors. So if you’re holding Queensland land passively through a foreign structure, don’t assume relief is there for the asking; the bar is real, the process is evidence-heavy, and it’s a QRO and specialist-adviser conversation. And even where the exemption applies, the QRO says it only relieves the foreign surcharge component; the ordinary land tax is still there, patiently waiting with a clipboard.

(Separately, if you’re buying rather than just holding, note that the purchaser-side surcharge, Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty, rose to 8% from 1 July 2024. That purchaser duty is a separate, one-off cost from the annual land tax we’re discussing here, and it has its own state-by-state rules worth getting advice on before you buy.)

The bottom line

The reassuring headline is real though – if you’re an Australian citizen or permanent visa holder who owns a Queensland investment property in your own name and you head overseas, the absentee surcharge generally doesn’t apply to you, and you keep the individual threshold and rates. That’s a meaningful saving and a rare moment where the law didn’t make the expat answer worse just for sport.

But the detail is where money is won or lost. The surcharge rate is 3% (not the 1.5% you’ll still see quoted in older write-ups online), it still hits non-citizens without permanent visas and, crucially, foreign companies and trustees of foreign trusts, and the structure you hold your land in can quietly flip you from “fine” to “surcharged.” Add in the notification obligations and the tightened relief rules, and this is one of those areas where a quick check beats a confident assumption.

Own Queensland land and not sure where you stand?

This is exactly the sort of thing we help Australian expats get straight. We’ll work through your residency and ownership structure, explain how the Queensland land tax and surcharge rules apply to you, make sure you’re meeting your notification obligations, and coordinate the land tax with your broader Australian tax position (including claiming it correctly against your rental income). We work remotely with expats all over the world, and our fee is always an upfront quote.

Book an appointment with our specialist team today. Better to know before than to find out after.

General information only. This article doesn’t consider your personal circumstances and isn’t tax, financial or legal advice. Queensland land tax is administered by the Queensland Revenue Office under Queensland law, and the thresholds, surcharge rates and relief rules change from time to time and depend on your specific circumstances, ownership structure and residency status. Land valuations and assessments are matters for the QRO. Speak to our specialist expatriate tax team today, or to another registered tax agent, before acting.