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Property development, building and renovating

Find out how building or renovating properties will affect your tax obligations and entitlements.

Last updated 30 June 2021

How you go about building or renovating properties (for example, as a one-off or as a regular activity) will affect your tax obligations and entitlements.

In any case, you should consider your obligations for:

If you are unsure if your activities are personal or business, see Are you in the business of renovating properties?

GST and property development

You may need to register for GST if:

  • the turnover from your property transactions and other taxable transactions is more than the GST registration threshold
  • your activities are regarded as an enterprise.

If you are registered or required to be registered for GST, you may be liable to pay GST on your property sale. You can generally claim GST credits for your construction costs and purchases related to the sale.

Buyers of new residential premises or potential residential land must withhold GST from the contract price and pay it to us. This change, known as GST at settlement, started on 1 July 2018.

See also:

Building and construction services reporting

Businesses in the building and construction industry need to report to us each year the total payments they make to each contractor for building and construction services.

Find out about:

If you renovate one or more properties, how you go about it can affect your tax obligations and entitlements.

If you build new residential premises for sale you're liable for GST and can claim GST credits on some costs.

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