Pharmacy restructures in Queensland – new duty exemption regime from 1 January 2025

Corporate and Commercial

minutes reading time

DATE PUBLISHED: December 18, 2024

key takeaways

  • New legislation regulating the ownership of pharmacies in Queensland was passed earlier this year and refines existing pharmacy ownership rules to align with other Australian states.
  • The Queensland Commissioner of State Revenue has also introduced a new public ruling that provides duty exemptions for eligible pharmacy owners who may need to restructure to meet the requirements of the new ownership rules.
  • Pharmacy owners should review their business structures to ensure compliance with the new legislation, and determine eligibility for duty relief available under the public ruling.

What are the changes?

The Pharmacy Business Ownership Act 2024 (Qld) (New Act), passed in March 2024, updates pharmacy ownership rules in Queensland. Pharmacy owners must assess their business structures to ensure ongoing compliance with the new requirements.  

For a detailed summary of the New Act, and its impact on the Queensland pharmacy ownership rules, please see our Significant Changes to Queensland’s Pharmacy Ownership Regime publication.

Alongside the introduction of the New Act, on 24 October 2024 the Queensland Commissioner of State Revenue (Commissioner) issued Public Ruling DA000.19.1 (Public Ruling). The Public Ruling provides an administrative arrangement for a duty exemption for certain transactions that are undertaken to ensure compliance with the ownership requirements in the New Act.

What does the Public Ruling say?

Changes will likely need to be made to how an existing pharmacy business is structured in order to comply with the ownership requirements set out in the New Act. These changes may give rise to transfer duty, landholder duty or corporate trustee duty liabilities.

The Public Ruling sets out the terms of an administrative arrangement that enables the Commissioner to provide an exemption from such duties for certain transactions or acquisitions that occur as part of an eligible pharmacy business complying with the ownership and interest requirements under the New Act.

To be eligible:

1.

Relevant period: The relevant transaction must occur during the “relevant period” – being, the period commencing on 1 January 2025 and ending:

a.

12 months after the commencement of the New Act for pharmacy business owners already eligible under the New Act; or

b. 

24 months after the commencement of the New Act for pharmacy business owners not yet eligible under the New Act.

2.

Purpose test: The relevant transaction must be predominantly for the purpose of complying with the ownership and interest requirements in the New Act. Where a transaction has multiple purposes, the purpose test may still be satisfied provided the other purposes are only minor or incidental.

The Public Ruling provides examples to clarify when the purpose test is satisfied as part of a proposed transaction or restructure.

How can MCW help you?

Pharmacy owners should take advice on whether transfer duty, corporate trustee duty or landholder duty relief will be available pursuant to the terms of the Public Ruling.

Our Corporate and Commercial Advisory team can assist with reviewing your existing pharmacy ownership structures to ensure compliance with the New Act, as well as documenting any required restructures.

Our Taxation and Revenue team can advise on whether duty relief for a particular transaction will be available under the Public Ruling, and if so, assist you with applying to the Commissioner for an exemption. We can also advise clients as to the nature of the administrative arrangement and what it means for clients.

For more information, please contact some of our Pharmacy experts Mark Woolley and 
Nick Camphin, or our taxation and duty experts, Kimberley Barnes and Andrew Proudfoot.

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