Microburbs Australian Property Data

Calculators · Land tax calculator

calculators_land_tax

Read-onlyIdempotent

Annual land tax on land you own in a state or territory, with the tax-free threshold, each rate band and any foreign owner surcharge shown.

Who pays it: owners of land that isn't their home — investors with rental properties, holiday homes, vacant land, companies and trusts. It is charged every year on the combined land value of everything the owner holds in the state, so two $800,000 blocks cost more than twice one.

What it covers: the general scale and threshold, the company / trust rates or loss of the threshold where a state has them, any premium band, and the foreign / absentee owner surcharge. The Northern Territory has no land tax; the ACT charges it on rented-out homes. The land tax year in force on assessment_date is used, named in rates.

Caveats: an estimate, not an assessment. Pass the land value (council or state valuation), not the market price of the property — they differ a lot. Primary production, charities, special trusts and part-year ownership have rules not modelled here; see caveats. The home exemption is a flag, not a calculation of mixed-use land.

Price: 1¢ per call.

Tool call template

Replace each placeholder with a value matching the input schema. Only required parameters are included; add optional parameters as needed.

{
  "id": 1,
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "arguments": {
      "state": "<state>",
      "land_value": "<land_value>"
    },
    "name": "calculators_land_tax"
  }
}

Input Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`state`	Yes	State or territory: NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT.
`foreign`	No	A foreign or absentee owner — adds the state's surcharge.
`land_value`	Yes	Total taxable land value you hold in the state, in dollars — the unimproved / site value of every parcel added together, not the property prices. Leave your own home out (it is exempt).
`owner_type`	No	One of: individual, company, trust. Companies and trusts pay higher rates or lose the threshold in some states.	individual
`assessment_date`	No	Any date in the land tax year you want (YYYY-MM-DD). Default: today in Sydney.
`principal_residence`	No	The land is the owner's home. Always exempt; returns 0 with the reason.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

AddedNov 13, 2026

TDQS

A3.9/5.0

Behavior3/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

The annotations already declare readOnly, idempotent, non-destructive and closed-world, so the safety profile is covered. The description adds real context on top: the estimate-not-assessment caveat, the per-state rules (NT has none, ACT on rented homes), that the year in force is reported back in `rates`, and a per-call price. That is useful, but it stops short of describing the returned breakdown in any structured way.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Bold section headers with a front-loaded headline sentence make it scannable, and the cost and caveats are placed last where they belong. A few lines duplicate schema text (the valuation-vs-market-price warning, the home exemption flag) and could be trimmed without losing information.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

With six parameters, no output schema and a comparatively complex domain (state-varying rates, surcharges, thresholds), the description covers what the tool computes, which inputs drive it, what is out of scope, and where the qualifiers surface (`rates`, `caveats`). There is no material gap an agent would need to close before calling it correctly.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters4/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema coverage is 100%, so the baseline is 3, but the description genuinely deepens the most error-prone parameter: it explains that land_value is the combined unimproved value across all parcels in the state (two $800,000 blocks cost more than twice one) and must not be the market price. It also ties assessment_date to which year's rates are applied, meaning beyond the schema's 'any date in the land tax year'.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose4/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a specific verb and resource — annual land tax on land owned in a state or territory — and defines scope well enough (thresholds, rate bands, foreign surcharge, per-state variation) that an agent can identify it as a tax-estimate tool. It does not explicitly differentiate itself from the stamp duty or first-home calculators nearby, so it falls short of a 5.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines4/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

The 'Who pays it' section names the applicable audience (investors, holiday homes, vacant land, companies and trusts) and 'Caveats' explicitly excludes cases it does not model (primary production, charities, special trusts, part-year ownership), which is genuine when-not-to-use guidance. No alternative tool is named for those excluded cases, but the guidance in the definition itself is clear.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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