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Commonwealth act
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
This Act imposes a tax on gifts — that is, when a person voluntarily transfers money or property to someone else without receiving full value in return. Here's what you need to know:
The tax rate is not applied to just the single gift in isolation. Instead, the Act bundles together the value of:
This prevents people from dodging the tax by splitting one large gift into several smaller ones spread across time.
The rates are progressive (they increase as the total gift value rises), expressed in the old pre-decimal currency of pounds:
Want the full deep dive?
Zoe can write the in-depth analysis on top of the summary above: how it works, who it affects and what each part actually does.
Direct links to the current provisions in Gift Duty Act 1941.
Zoe has indexed the source text for search and analysis. Use the official register for the original document and download formats.
View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
| Total gift value | Rate | |---|---| | Up to £500 | Nil (no tax) | | £500 – £10,000 | 3% of the gift value | | £10,000 – £20,000 | 3% rising gradually (increasing 0.03% per £100 over £10,000) | | £20,000 – £120,000 | 6% rising gradually (increasing 0.02% per £100 over £20,000) | | £120,000 – £500,000 | 26% rising gradually (increasing 0.005% per £1,000 over £120,000) | | £500,000 or more | ~27.9% flat |
Gift duty was designed to prevent wealthy people from avoiding estate (death) duties by simply giving away their assets before they died. By taxing large gifts during a person's lifetime, the government could capture tax revenue that might otherwise be lost. This Act works hand-in-hand with a companion law (the Gift Duty Assessment Act 1941), which sets out the detailed administrative rules — how gifts are valued, how to lodge returns, how the tax is collected, and so on.
Note: Gift duty in Australia was ultimately abolished in 1979, so this Act is of primarily historical interest — but it is a clear example of mid-20th century Commonwealth taxation policy targeting wealth transfers.