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Who We Help
For property developers and investors
Margin scheme, revenue versus capital, duty across jurisdictions and the structure the project has to be held in from day one.
Property development attracts every tax at once: income tax on the profit, GST on the sales, duty on the acquisition, land tax while it is held and the general anti-avoidance provision over the top of the structure. They interact and several of them are locked in by decisions made before a single lot is sold.
The recurring theme is that the tax outcome is fixed early: in the acquisition structure, in the contract and in the way the project is characterised from the outset.
What we help with
The work
- Development entity structuring and the interaction with land tax, duty and CGT
- Revenue versus capital: isolated profit-making undertakings and trading stock
- GST and the margin scheme, including on subdivided lots and staged releases
- Going concern and farmland GST-free supplies on acquisition
- New residential premises, the five-year rule and GST withholding at settlement
- Duty: landholder duty, aggregation and duty on the development structure itself
- Land tax and surcharge land tax, including foreign person exposure through trusts
- Joint ventures, development agreements and profit share arrangements
- ATO guidance on property development structures and Part IVA risk
- Project wind-down, liquidation and getting the profit out
Common situations
Where developers get caught
- The margin scheme was not agreed before settlement and the GST cost falls straight to the bottom line.
- The project was treated as capital and the ATO says it is revenue, a question decided on the facts and intentions at acquisition.
- The holding structure creates a foreign person and surcharge purchaser duty and surcharge land tax follow.
- The profit has to come out of the entity and nobody planned that part at the start.
How we work
How it works
Before acquisition. The cheapest advice on a development is the advice given before the contract is signed.
Across taxes. Income tax, GST, duty and land tax are advised together, because on a development they cannot sensibly be separated.
Documented rationale. Where the structure is chosen for commercial reasons, we make sure those reasons are recorded at the time, not reconstructed later.
Common questions
Is the profit on a subdivision capital or revenue?
It depends on the facts, particularly the purpose at acquisition and the scale and nature of the activities undertaken. A mere realisation of a capital asset is treated differently from a profit-making undertaking or a business of development and the difference affects the CGT discount, trading stock treatment and GST. Because it turns on intention and conduct, the contemporaneous evidence is decisive.
Related insights
Further reading
Property
PCG 2026/D2 and the reach of the draft guideline
Draft PCG 2026/D2
What the ATO's draft practical compliance guideline targets in property development structures and where it overreaches. Published note.
State taxes
The template trust deed that did not exclude foreign persons
Verona Hill [2026] NSWCATAD 69
A NSW decision on why foreign person exclusion clauses in a template trust deed can still fail the surcharge land tax test.
Have a matter you want a straight answer on?
Most engagements start with a short conversation about the issue and the exposure.