Private ruling: GST and gifting of vacant land
Date of advice: 6 March 2026
Published: 28 April 2026
Ruling period: 01/07/YYYY to 30/06/YYYY
Date scheme commenced: [date]

Ruling: Q1: Are you, [name], making a taxable supply pursuant to section 9-5 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (GST Act) when you supply the lot of land subdivided from the property located at [address] as a gift to your cousin? | A1: No, you are not making a taxable supply when you gift the lot of land subdivided from the property located at [address] ( Lot number ) to your Director's cousin and GST will not be payable on the supply. This is because the Commissioner considers the supply will not be made for consideration under paragraph 9-5(a) and will also not be made in the course or furtherance of an enterprise that you carry on under paragraph 9-5(b). Note: As you are not carrying on an enterprise in relation to the supply of [Lot number], you are not entitled to claim any input tax credits (ITCs) for any acquisition you make in relation to [Lot number] e.g. the subdivision costs.

Relevant facts and circumstances: [name] ( You/the Company ) is registered for GST from [date]. You are carrying on a logistics business. • [name] is the Director of the Company • [name] is the Director of the Company • [names] are also staff members of the Company You bought a property located at [address] ( the Property/the Land ) in [date]. At the time of your purchase the Property was vacant land with no building or any other structures on the Land other than # bores for water supply as the Property being rural land did not have town water connections. You obtained all government, local council and engineered approvals for the Property for stage # in [date] consisting of [number] acres. The Property was zoned rural residential when purchased. You commenced Stage # development of the Property in [date] subdividing [number]× approximately [number] acre lots from [number] acres combining total subdivided land being [number] acres which were sold more than [number] years ago. You built roads, connected water supply and electricity to these blocks during stage # of the development. You have on [date] (survey plan [number]) subdivided another [number]-acre block known as [address] (Lot number) off the remaining [number] acres from stage # to gift to the cousin of [name] so he could live close by. At the time of this subdivision there were two mortgages on the Property with the [name of lender] as extracted from the certificate of titles [State] as of [date]: [numbers and date], and [numbers and date] The cousin is [name] ( the Cousin ) who is not registered for GST. The Cousin has not worked for or has any connections to [name]. Both the remaining property and [Lot number] have separate titles. You have not undertaken any improvements to [Lot number] that you are giving to the Cousin, leaving it to him to build his house. You have not received nor asked for any consideration/payment in exchange for [Lot number]. The Cousin will be paying the stamp duty on the transfer of [Lot number]. The transfer of [Lot number] has not yet occurred between [name] and the Cousin. You have a development approval for stage # and stage #. Stage # is approved for [number] hectare lots and stage # approved for [number] larger lots. You have not sold or transferred any other properties in the last [number]years. You do plan to sell lots in YYYY-YYYY to fund your retirement. [Name] has ceased operating as a logistics company as of [date], and the future direction is for your Directors to retire from all businesses other than the subdivisions of the property. Once these have been sold the company will be dissolved.

Relevant legislative provisions: A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 section 9-5 | A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 section 9-20 | A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 section 9-40 | A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 Division 38 | A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 Division 40 | A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 section 195-1