I came across something that made me wonder if I have found a legal way to avoid land tax. A friend of mine asked my assistance to interpret her recently deceased mother?s will and a list of assets that an executor had sent her.
Her mother was a little bit recluse and estranged from the family, so they had no idea that she and her brother had not divided up my friends? grandmother?s deceased estate. She passed away over 30 years ago, but her estate was still untouched. The estate contains e.g. a small two bedroom house on a double block in an eastern suburb of Melbourne. The value of the land alone is about $1.5m. My friend?s mother also owned her unit that was her primary residence and her brother lived in the ?grandmother?s house? but he owns a house interstate as well. In this case who (if anyone) was/is liable to pay land tax for my friend?s grandmother?s house?
My friend is pretty sure that her mother or her uncle never paid a cent of land tax. They simply would not have had capacity to pay anything or even understand about the liability. She believes that only reason that they never divided estate up (did not even touch the bank accounts or term deposits) was that they simply would not have known what to do and it was all too hard.
The executor found many untouched bank accounts that government had cleaned up. However they can make a claim and government will pay the funds back to the estate.
Another question that came to my mind is how long legally you can have ?undivided deceased estate?? Is there any time limit? In my friend's case it looks like that her grandmother did not have a will.
Her mother was a little bit recluse and estranged from the family, so they had no idea that she and her brother had not divided up my friends? grandmother?s deceased estate. She passed away over 30 years ago, but her estate was still untouched. The estate contains e.g. a small two bedroom house on a double block in an eastern suburb of Melbourne. The value of the land alone is about $1.5m. My friend?s mother also owned her unit that was her primary residence and her brother lived in the ?grandmother?s house? but he owns a house interstate as well. In this case who (if anyone) was/is liable to pay land tax for my friend?s grandmother?s house?
My friend is pretty sure that her mother or her uncle never paid a cent of land tax. They simply would not have had capacity to pay anything or even understand about the liability. She believes that only reason that they never divided estate up (did not even touch the bank accounts or term deposits) was that they simply would not have known what to do and it was all too hard.
The executor found many untouched bank accounts that government had cleaned up. However they can make a claim and government will pay the funds back to the estate.
Another question that came to my mind is how long legally you can have ?undivided deceased estate?? Is there any time limit? In my friend's case it looks like that her grandmother did not have a will.