State Tax Burden Compared: Which Australian State Costs You Most in 2025-26?
- Published
- April 2026
- Last reviewed
- Tax-year context
- 2025-26
- Reading time
- 6 min
General information only — we maintain pages with primary-source checks and date-based reviews. See editorial policy.
General information only. This is not tax or financial advice. Rates and thresholds change; confirm with the relevant state revenue office before acting.
Federal income tax is the same in Perth as it is in Hobart, but everything else isn’t. Stamp duty on an identical house can differ by $20,000 between states, land tax kicks in at wildly different thresholds, and the payroll tax wage base that matters most to your small business depends entirely on where your staff are. This article compares the three big state taxes that most individuals and small businesses actually pay in 2025-26.
Stamp duty on an $800,000 owner-occupier purchase
Assume a first-time non-concessional buyer (no first home buyer discount applied — see your state FHB calculator separately for concessions).
| State | Approximate stamp duty on $800k |
|---|---|
| VIC | $43,070 |
| NT | $39,600 |
| SA | $37,830 |
| WA | $32,316 |
| TAS | $31,185 |
| NSW | $30,187 |
| ACT | $22,158 (owner-occupier rates; eligible first home buyers pay nothing) |
| QLD | $21,850 (principal place of residence concession) |
Victoria remains the most expensive stamp-duty state on mid-range homes, while Queensland’s PPR concession keeps owner-occupier duty materially lower. The ACT has been progressively shifting from stamp duty to a broad-based land tax since 2012, and from 1 July 2026 its Home Buyer Concession Scheme removes duty entirely for eligible buyers with no property price cap and no income test.
Land tax on a $1.5m investment property (land value only, general rate)
Most states charge land tax on the unimproved land value, not the total property value. Assume a single investor with one investment property on land valued at $900,000.
| State | 2025-26 land tax on $900,000 of land |
|---|---|
| NSW | $0 — $900k sits below the $1,075,000 tax-free threshold, which is frozen at that figure for land tax years after 2024 |
| VIC | $4,050 |
| QLD | $3,500 |
| SA | $335 |
| WA | $1,500 ($2,340 for land inside the Perth metropolitan region, which also pays MRIT) |
| TAS | $7,737.50 — Tasmania’s scale steps up sharply to 1.5% above $500,000 |
| ACT | $11,053 — the ACT taxes every residential investment property from the first dollar, and adds a fixed charge on top |
Figures are for a resident individual holding the land in their own name, calculated on each jurisdiction’s published 2025-26 scale. Ownership through a company or trust, and absentee or foreign ownership, can change these substantially: Queensland, for example, assesses an absentee on a separate scale starting at $350,000 rather than the $600,000 individual threshold, and then adds a 3% surcharge. Specific numbers also move each year with valuations — use the state tax burden ranker for current figures.
Victoria: the rates used above already include the COVID Debt Repayment Plan levy, which Victoria built into the published 2024–2033 rate tables rather than charging as a separate line. On top of general land tax, Victoria applies an annual Vacant Residential Land Tax and a separate 4% absentee owner surcharge for foreign owners. Factor both in when modelling Melbourne rentals.
Queensland: uses land value on properties held in Queensland only — interstate holdings are not aggregated. Queensland legislated interstate aggregation in 2022 and repealed it before it ever applied.
South Australia and Western Australia apply no foreign or absentee surcharge to land tax at all. SA’s well-known 7% foreign ownership surcharge, and WA’s 7% foreign buyers duty, are both stamp duty charged once on the purchase — not an annual land tax.
Payroll tax: thresholds and top rates
If you run a business with staff, the payroll tax threshold determines whether you pay at all, and the rate determines how much. Grouping rules can pull related entities together.
| State | Annual threshold | Headline rate |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | $1,200,000 | 5.45% |
| VIC | $1,000,000 (monthly ~$83k) | 4.85% metro / 1.2125% regional |
| QLD | $1,300,000 | 4.75% / 4.95% above $6.5m |
| WA | $1,000,000 | 5.5% flat for all employers (tiered 6%/6.5% rates ended 30 June 2023) |
| SA | $1,500,000 | 4.95% |
| TAS | $1,250,000 | 4% / 6.1% above $2m |
| ACT | $1,750,000 (from 1 July 2026, down from $2,000,000) | Tiered general rate from 6.75% (>$1.75m–$20m), rising to 8.75% above $150m |
| NT | $2,500,000 | 5.5% (6.5% from 1 July 2026 for groups with $100m+ Australia-wide wages) |
The NT has the highest threshold in the country, which is why small service businesses often find Darwin cheaper to hire in than Sydney or Melbourne. NSW’s $1.2m threshold catches employers at around 12-14 full-time staff.
Worked example: three small businesses
Business A — sole-state operator, $1.1m wages, based in Sydney. Above NSW’s $1.2m threshold? No. Payroll tax: $0.
Business B — same wages, same staff, Melbourne. Above VIC’s $1,000,000 threshold by $100k. Payroll tax at 4.85% = $4,850 per year.
Business C — $3m wages, split 60% Sydney, 40% Brisbane. NSW wages = $1.8m, over $1.2m by $600k × 5.45% = $32,700. QLD wages = $1.2m, below $1.3m threshold = $0. Total = $32,700. Note: each state apportions its own threshold based on the share of national wages, so the arithmetic isn’t always this clean — model with the state revenue calculators.
Combined burden: where is the cheapest state to live and invest?
There’s no single answer, but a few patterns repeat:
- Owner-occupier buyers: QLD, WA and TAS are consistently cheapest on stamp duty; VIC and SA are most expensive.
- Property investors: WA has the lightest land tax on mid-range holdings; TAS, QLD and VIC (with its surcharge) are heaviest.
- Small employers: NT and ACT have the highest thresholds, so small teams pay nothing; NSW catches mid-sized employers earliest.
- Foreign investors: NSW, VIC and QLD all apply foreign purchaser stamp duty surcharges (7-8%) plus absentee land tax surcharges (2-4%).
Key takeaways
- Stamp duty differences on an $800k home can exceed $20,000 between states — it’s worth modelling before you move or buy.
- Land tax regimes diverge sharply once you own more than one property; VIC’s surcharge and TAS’s steep scale punish mid-tier investors.
- Payroll tax thresholds vary by a factor of 2.7x between VIC and NT — a genuine consideration for where to base a growing services business.
- Surcharges on foreign buyers and vacant residential land are increasing across most states, not decreasing.
Run your own stamp duty, land tax and payroll tax side-by-side in the state tax burden ranker, and if you’re weighing a move, cross-check the CGT impact of selling in the capital gains tax calculator.