ACT Severe Disability Duty Exemption — Full stamp duty waiver

What Is This Payment?

The ACT Severe Disability Duty Exemption is a full conveyance-duty (stamp duty) waiver for home buyers who meet the Services Australia severe-disability definition. Inside the rule database it is tagged as a monetary primary ACT benefit in the ACT Disability Home Buyer cluster, carrying an eligibility_only result role because the value is the duty removed rather than a cash payment. The entitlement scope is per household and one-off, applying once to the qualifying purchase.

The administering body is the ACT Revenue Office, contacted through its revenue-policy email channel rather than a standard online claim. Because the exemption depends on a qualifying Services Australia or DVA payment, the office assesses the pension evidence before zeroing the duty at settlement. The buyer's conveyancer typically coordinates the lodgement so the duty adjustment is reflected in the settlement statement.

The design intent is to remove the upfront duty barrier entirely for the most severely affected buyers, on the view that a person on a disability or carer pension faces both a constrained income and higher housing-adaptation costs. This is the deepest of the two ACT Disability Home Buyer concessions. Its companion, the Disability Duty Concession Scheme, only waives duty up to $1,020,000 and then caps the saving at $35,238; the Severe Disability Duty Exemption has no value cap at all. The trade-off is the gate: this exemption requires a qualifying pension, while the concession scheme requires an NDIS funding package.

How Much Can You Get?

The amount type is eligibility_only, so there is no flat dollar figure. The value is the entire conveyance duty on the purchase, removed in full. Unlike the capped Disability Duty Concession Scheme, this exemption applies 100 per cent of the duty waiver at any property value — there is no threshold above which the saving freezes.

To audit the saving, take two steps. First, find the standard ACT conveyance duty for your contract price on the ACT Revenue Office duty scale. Second, that figure is your saving in full, because the exemption reduces the duty to zero at settlement. There is no subtraction of a cap and no residual to pay, which is the structural difference from the concession scheme.

The rule note frames the typical range: an ACT median property between $850,000 and $1,000,000 attracts standard duty of roughly $35,000 to $45,000, all of which is waived. The value of the exemption therefore grows without limit as the property price rises. A buyer purchasing a $1,300,000 accessible home would have all of that home's duty removed, where a Disability Duty Concession Scheme buyer at the same price would be capped at $35,238 and still pay the balance.

No multiplier, no reduces_if, and no date_windows attach to this rule, so nothing tapers the figure. The exact dollar saving must be read off the ACT duty scale for the contract price, and the exemption is applied once per qualifying purchase.

Eligibility Conditions

The eligibility block is an all set, so every item must pass.

1. ACT jurisdiction: state = ACT. The property must be in the Australian Capital Territory. Conveyance duty is a territory tax, so the home and buyer must be within the ACT.
2. Principal place of residence: purchasing_principal_residence = true. The buyer must intend to live in the home as their main residence rather than hold it as an investment.
3. Disability confirmed: disability_or_illness_confirmed = true. The buyer has a confirmed disability or illness meeting the severe-disability definition.
4. Qualifying pension: receiving_pension_type_payment = true. The buyer receives a qualifying pension — Disability Support Pension, DVA Invalidity Service Pension, DVA Invalidity Income Support Supplement, Carer Payment, or Carer Allowance — which is how the rule confirms the severe-disability test.

Required fields for assessment are state, principal-residence intent, confirmed disability, and qualifying pension receipt. The pension is the documentary anchor: the ACT Revenue Office checks evidence of the DSP, DVA invalidity payment, or carer payment before approving the waiver.

The excludes.any and conflicts lists are empty in the YAML. The decisive operational bar lives in the application notes: the buyer must not purchase the property from a family member. A transfer arranged within a family does not qualify, even where every other test is met, because the exemption is reserved for arm's-length purchases.

One practical consideration: a Carer Payment or Carer Allowance recipient can qualify on the basis of caring for a person with severe disability, so the buyer does not always have to be the person with disability themselves. The pension type that anchors the claim determines the evidence the office requires.

How To Apply

Application metadata defines a single channel: revenue_policy_email. The exemption is requested by contacting the ACT Revenue Office revenue-policy team with the supporting evidence, rather than through a self-service online form. In practice the buyer's conveyancer coordinates this so the duty adjustment lands in the settlement statement.

Evidence requirements are explicitly listed in the rule and should be assembled before settlement:

• Evidence of a qualifying payment — proof of Disability Support Pension, a DVA invalidity payment, or Carer Payment or Carer Allowance, the gate that meets the severe-disability definition.
• Settlement contract — the contract of sale, which the office uses to apply the full duty waiver at settlement.

Two practical tips help. First, confirm the seller is not a family member before lodging, because a family transfer voids the exemption regardless of the buyer's pension status. Second, contact the revenue-policy team well ahead of settlement, since the email channel is slower than a self-service form and the duty must be assessed before the settlement date to avoid paying duty upfront and seeking a refund later.

Read the official ACT Revenue Office exemption guidance

Rule-Based Scenarios

Scenario 1: DSP recipient, high-value home, full waiver

Lowanna receives the Disability Support Pension and buys a $1,300,000 ground-floor accessible apartment in Kingston as her principal residence, from an unrelated developer. Standard duty on the contract would be about $50,000. Because the exemption has no value cap, all $50,000 is waived and Lowanna pays zero duty. Had she instead qualified only for the capped Disability Duty Concession Scheme, her saving would have frozen at $35,238 and she would still have paid roughly $14,762, so the exemption is worth $50,000 to her here.

Scenario 2: Carer Payment recipient, median home

Warrun receives Carer Payment for his wife, who has a severe disability, and buys a $920,000 single-storey home in Tuggeranong from an arm's-length seller. The standard duty of roughly $40,000 is removed in full because his Carer Payment meets the qualifying-pension gate. He pays no conveyance duty at settlement. The exemption applies even though Warrun is the carer rather than the person with disability, because the rule accepts receiving_pension_type_payment = true on a carer payment basis.

Scenario 3: family purchase, blocked despite pension

Allira receives a DVA Invalidity Service Pension and arranges to buy her parents' $780,000 home, where she already lives, to keep it in the family. Standard duty would be about $22,000. Although she meets every coded eligibility test, the application notes prohibit buying from a family member, so the exemption is refused. Allira pays the full $22,000 of duty. The only outcome that would have changed this is an arm's-length purchase from an unrelated seller.

Common Mistakes

• Expecting an NDIS package to unlock the exemption: this rule requires receiving_pension_type_payment = true, not an NDIS package. NDIS evidence routes a buyer to the Disability Duty Concession Scheme, which is capped at $35,238; the exemption needs a pension such as DSP or Carer Payment.
• Buying from a parent or sibling: the application notes prohibit purchasing from a family member. A within-family transfer voids the full waiver even when the buyer holds a qualifying pension and lives in the home.
• Assuming a price cap applies: there is no value threshold on this exemption. Buyers sometimes limit their search under $1,020,000, confusing this rule with the Disability Duty Concession Scheme; the exemption removes all duty at any price.
• Paying duty upfront then seeking a refund: the channel is the revenue-policy email, which is slower than a form. Lodging late means duty is paid at settlement and reclaimed afterwards, tying up tens of thousands of dollars unnecessarily.
• Overlooking the carer pathway: a Carer Payment or Carer Allowance recipient can qualify on behalf of a person with severe disability. Carers sometimes assume the buyer must be the person with disability and never apply.
• Treating it as an investment-purchase concession: the home must be the principal place of residence. An investment or holiday property fails the purchasing_principal_residence = true gate and gets no waiver.

Related Rules And Interactions

The conflicts and affects lists in this rule are empty, but the cluster structure and the duty-scale logic connect the exemption to several other ACT home-buyer and concession rules. Use these links to navigate the surrounding rules.

• ACT Disability Duty Concession Scheme — the cluster sibling. Key difference: the concession waives duty up to $1,020,000 then caps the saving at $35,238 and is tied to an NDIS funding package, whereas this exemption removes 100 per cent of duty at any value and is tied to a qualifying pension. A buyer with a pension routes here; a buyer with an NDIS package routes to the concession.
• ACT Pensioner Duty Concession — a broader pensioner duty concession, the path for pensioners who do not meet the severe-disability definition.
• ACT Off-the-Plan Duty Exemption — a duty concession for off-the-plan apartments, relevant where the accessible home is purchased before construction completes.
• ACT General Rates Rebate — an ongoing rates concession that pairs with a duty waiver to lower the cost of holding the home after purchase.
• ACT Taxi Subsidy Scheme — a companion disability transport concession for the same household where the disability also limits public-transport use.

Frequently Asked Questions