Unpaid tax interest for transfer duty self assessors
Understand the 2 components of unpaid tax interest—assessed interest and late payment interest—and see examples of how these are calculated.
If primary tax (duty) for a dutiable transaction is not paid by its due date, unpaid tax interest (UTI) will accrue daily until the duty is paid in full. UTI may also apply if a document is not lodged on time.
The parties to a transaction are liable for the duty, interest and penalties on that transaction.
As a transfer duty self assessor, you should understand when UTI applies and how it is calculated so you can clearly explain to your client how their duty liability was determined.
The UTI rate is 12.36% for the 2024–25 financial year.
UTI has 2 components:
- assessed interest—calculated at the time a transaction is assessed and lodged
- late payment interest (LPI)—calculated after the transaction has been lodged.
Whether assessed interest or LPI applies to a particular transaction will depend on the following:
- Lodgement due date—30 days from the date of the transaction, subject to any extension (see public ruling DA019.1)
- Lodgement non-compliance period—the number of days between the lodgement due date and the actual lodgement date
- Actual lodgement date—the date when a transaction statement is
- lodged in QRO Online
- or
- received in our office (if you are a paper lodger)
- Transaction payment due date—14 days after you lodge the transaction statement, even if the transaction is lodged early.
UTI accrues from the UTI start date, which is worked out by deducting the lodgement non-compliance period (in days) from the transaction payment due date. The UTI start date will be shown on your transaction summary statement if you lodge through QRO Online.
Use our transfer duty calculator to work out the UTI component of a transaction before entering it into QRO Online.
Assessed interest
When you lodge a transaction late (i.e. after 30 days from either the date of the transaction or when it became unconditional), assessed interest will apply if the UTI start date is before the lodgement/assessment date.
A transaction is lodged in QRO Online on 6 June 2024, which is 50 days late—it should have been lodged on 17 April 2024. The payment due date is 20 June (14 days after date of lodgement).
The lodgement non-compliance period is from 18 April (the day after the transaction was due to be lodged) to 6 June (the day the transaction was actually lodged).
The UTI start date is 2 May 2024 (payment due date 20 June minus 50-day non-compliance period). Thirty-six (36) days of interest will be assessed at the time of the assessment—2 May to 6 June.
Late payment interest
If you submit a transaction on time through QRO Online (i.e. within 30 days of transaction or unconditional date), late payment interest (LPI) will only accrue after the payment due date. However, where a transaction has been lodged late, LPI will accrue either:
- from the UTI start date, if the transaction is lodged up to 14 days late
- or
- from the lodgement/assessment date, if the transaction is lodged more than 14 days late.
This interest accrues weekly each Sunday until the liability is paid in full.
Using the previous example—where the transaction was lodged on Thursday 6 June (50 days late)—36 days of assessed interest would be included in the assessment. LPI accrues from 7 June and is applied on Sunday 9 June (calculated from 7 to 9 June) and then every Sunday after that.
If full payment of duty and assessed interest is received on Friday 7 June, no LPI would accrue.
If payment is made on Thursday 20 June, LPI would accrue from 4 June and be applied on Sunday 9 June (calculated from 7 to 9 June) and on Sunday 16 June (calculated from 10 to 16 June). No LPI would accrue between Monday 17 June and Thursday 20 June.
QRO Online cannot forecast if payment will be made on time, so any LPI that accrues after the lodgement/assessment date will not appear on the transaction statement.
Also consider…
- Learn more about payments, and interest and penalties.
- Read parts 29–33 of the public ruling on self assessor rights and obligations (DA000.2).
- Refer to section 54 of the Taxation Administration Act 2001.
- Find previous rates of unpaid tax interest.
- See the self assessor guidelines.