Northern Territory Budget revenue measures 2023: taxes on non-land assets to be abolished

On 9 May 2023, the Northern Territory Budget was handed down and as part of the budgetary measures, the Northern Territory Government has announced a range of tax reforms. The reforms are included in the Stamp Duty Amendment Bill 2023 which is a bill to amend the Stamp Duty Act 1978. If passed, and upon assent by the Administrator, the Bill will enact the following revenue measures:

• the abolition of stamp duty on all non-land assets other than chattels that are conveyed with an interest in land;
• the introduction of a new exemption from duty for chattels that are transferred with a lease where that lease has nil or nominal dutiable value and is not conveyed with any other dutiable property;
• the commencement date of the above measures is 9 May 2023;
• the transitional provisions in a new section 116 provide that any transactions relating to non-land assets where the conveyance was first executed before 9 May 2023 will continue to be subject to stamp duty;
• any transactions that were entered into prior to 9 May 2023 that are cancelled and replacement transactions are entered into for substantially the same dutiable property will continue to be subject to stamp duty;
• a conveyance that occurs as a consequence of the exercise of an option contract over non-land assets that was entered into before 9 May 2023 will remain subject to stamp duty.