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Every calculation is unlocked. Run the next stage, the next lot or the next site as many times as you like — nothing is deducted, nothing counts down, and none of it expires.
Before the contract is signed — or before it settles
You have built it, you have priced it, and the contracts are going out. GST on a new residential sale is one eleventh of the whole price. The margin scheme cuts that to one eleventh of the margin — and it only applies if you are eligible and if one sentence is in the contract before settlement.
A registered tax agent works it out at $100 an hour to $500 an hour, and a GST opinion on a development is not a one hour job. We do it in three minutes — eligibility, every lawful treatment priced, the settlement withholding and what has to be signed.
A rough guide only. The full calculator asks whether you are eligible at all, what the buyer withholds at settlement, and what renting the unsold stock would cost.
If this is you
The GST on a property development is spread across a Division of the Act, four public rulings, a practice statement and a withholding regime that lives in a different Act altogether. None of it is written for the person who actually builds the houses.
Nobody mentioned the margin scheme box, so nobody ticked it. The supply is made at settlement rather than exchange, so there is still time — but only until the first one settles, and after that it is gone for good on that lot.
The price less what you paid for the property. Not less the build, not less the stamp duty, not less the legals, not less the interest. That last sentence is the most expensive misunderstanding in the whole subject and it is four words long.
And the accountant is waiting on the contract, and the contract is waiting on the accountant. Conveyancers are not permitted to give GST advice unless they are registered tax agents, so the question sits in the middle of the table.
Residential rent is input taxed. The day a tenant moves into a dwelling you built to sell, part of the GST credits you claimed on the build start coming back — and how much depends on whether it is still genuinely on the market.
You type in the price, what you paid, and how you bought it. We apply the published GST law, work out every lawful way this sale can be taxed, and put them in order. No appointment, no engagement letter, no waiting on somebody else's diary.
Three minutes and you will know whether the margin scheme is open to you, and what it is worth on your own figures. It costs nothing.
The loss
Both bought the same site for $1,320,000. Both spent $2,400,000 building. Both sold for $4,440,000. One of them paid $120,000 more in GST than the other, and the only difference was a tick box on a contract.
Both developments are invented and neither developer exists. What is real is everything else: the one eleventh, the margin scheme in Division 75, the written agreement requirement in section 75-5(1A) and the 7% withholding at settlement. Every figure above is what this calculator produces from those inputs, and the worked examples run the same two through the real engine.
The alternatives
| Guess Use the standard contract |
A tax agent A written GST opinion |
GST Margin Scheme This calculator |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Nothing now, one eleventh of the land later |
$100 an hour to $500 an hour | $249 |
| How long it takes | An afternoon of worrying | Days to weeks, against a settlement date | Under 3 minutes |
| Every lawful treatment priced | |||
| Settlement withholding reconciled | |||
| Reads your actual contracts and title | |||
| Run it again for the next stage | A new fee |
The fifth row is the honest one. A tax agent can read the contract you bought under and the title search behind it, and no calculator can do that. What this does is put the arithmetic and the questions in front of you first, so that the hour you buy from them is spent on the part only they can do.
The clock
Every one of them is in the legislation rather than in a marketing calendar. Miss one and the choice gets made for you, at a price you did not pick and cannot change back.
Section 75-5(1A). The supply of land is made when it settles, so a contract already signed without the clause can still be fixed by a variation both parties sign. After settlement it is gone. The buyer withholds — of the price under the margin scheme, against one eleventh without it. What the clause has to say.
Adjustment periods under Division 129 are the tax periods ending 30 June. Any new stock let since the last one is measured at this date and part of the build credits come back — then again the year after, for as many as ten years. What letting unsold stock costs.
Section 93-5. A credit ceases to be claimable four years after the due date of the activity statement for the period it was first attributable to, and there is no discretion to extend it. On a development that runs three years from first invoice to last settlement, the early ones are closer to the edge than anybody thinks. This is the —.
There is a fourth date and it is not a deadline: failing to give the purchaser the written notice before settlement is 100 penalty units, which is — at the unit that applies from 1 July 2026.
The report
The free estimate tells you roughly where you stand. This is the part that gives you the actual numbers and puts every treatment in order. Up to thirteen sections and twelve charts, on your own figures, with every working shown so you can check it, argue with it, or hand it to your accountant.
See a real one, free — a six townhouse development run all the way through, with the open half exactly as a customer sees it, and the assistant live on it for two questions.
How it works
If you can read a contract front page, you can use this. Simple mode asks six questions. Advanced adds the valuation, the costs that carried no GST and the build period.
The contract price, what you paid for the land, how you acquired it and where the contract stands. We never ask for your name, your ABN, your tax file number or a bank account — nothing you would not read out to a conveyancer over the phone.
The exact GST on the whole price, whether the margin scheme looks open to you and which rule decides it, and every lawful treatment named with the whole explanation of what each one means.
$249 opens the full report: every treatment priced and ranked, the settlement reconciliation, the renting adjustment and the dated list of what has to be signed. PDF included, ready to send to your accountant.
The margin scheme in Division 75, new residential premises in section 40-75, the adjustments in Division 129, and GST at settlement in Subdivision 14-E of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953.
Nothing is a black box. Every figure in the report carries the arithmetic that produced it and the section or ruling it comes from.
We are not licensed to tell you what to do, and the arithmetic is the part most developers are missing rather than the opinion. Eligibility turns on contracts only you hold.
If the report does not apply to your circumstances, tell us what went wrong within 14 days and we refund you in full.
Included with the report
Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report — your price, your acquisition, your chain of title, your figures — and answers questions about it in plain English. Not a search box and not a help page. It knows what your report says because it has been given it.
An example of the kind of answer it gives, on the sample report's figures.
Pricing
One payment, no expiry, nothing to renew, and we never keep your card. It opens the whole report and lets you redo the sums for every stage and every lot, as often as you like.
Prices in Australian dollars. Paid securely through PayPal — card or PayPal balance, no account needed. See a sample report before you decide.
Questions
If the sale is taxable, GST is one eleventh of the price — so — on a sale at the Australian mean dwelling price of —. If you are eligible for the margin scheme and the contract says so in writing, GST is one eleventh of the margin instead, and the margin is the price less what you paid for the property. Development costs, stamp duty and legal fees do not come off the margin.
You can use it if you are registered for GST, the sale is taxable, you and the buyer agree in writing on or before settlement, and you did not acquire the whole property through a supply that was ineligible for the margin scheme. The commonest disqualifier is having bought the property as a fully taxable sale where GST was worked out the ordinary way. Since 9 December 2008, buying as a GST-free going concern, as GST-free farmland, or from an associate for nothing also disqualifies you if that seller was ineligible.
The agreement has to be made in writing on or before the day of the supply, which is settlement. Leave it out and the sale is taxed on the whole price rather than on the margin. The Commissioner can extend the time to put an agreement in writing, but has no power to apply the margin scheme where the parties never agreed that it applied — so on a development the difference is usually the whole of what you paid for the land, divided by eleven.
For a taxable sale of new residential premises or potential residential land the purchaser withholds one eleventh of the contract price and pays it straight to the ATO, or 7% of the contract price if the margin scheme applies. You must notify the purchaser in writing before settlement; failing to do so carries a penalty of 100 penalty units, which is $36,400. You get the withheld amount back as a credit when you lodge the activity statement for the period.
No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in the subject. Section 75-14 keeps development costs, construction, stamp duty, legal fees, options, council contributions and interest out of the acquisition figure entirely. The margin is the sale price less what you paid for the property. What the build does instead is produce GST credits at one eleventh of what you spent — which is worth the same money by a different route, and is why the law will not let you have both.
Residential rent is input taxed, so renting is not a creditable purpose. If you claimed GST credits on the build intending to sell, and then let the property, you have an increasing adjustment under Division 129 that repays part of those credits at the next adjustment period ending 30 June. Keeping the property genuinely on the market while it is tenanted reduces the adjustment; taking it off the market increases it. Let it for five years straight with no marketing at all and the sale stops being taxable, and every credit is repaid.
Because the arithmetic is the part most developers are missing, and arithmetic scales. GST advice and compliance is billed at $100 an hour to $500 an hour in Australia, and a written GST opinion on a development is not a one hour job. This service is not licensed to give you a recommendation and does not attempt one — read it first, not instead, and take it to them with the questions already framed.
There is no amending it afterwards, no objecting to it, and no discretion the Commissioner can exercise where the two of you never agreed. Every other decision on a development can be revisited. This one closes on the day the transfer completes, and it closes on every lot separately. Three minutes now is the cheapest three minutes of the whole project.
No card. No sign up. Your answer on the next screen.
You already know the price and what you paid for the land. That is enough to find out what this is going to cost you.
Most GST calculators divide by eleven. This one works out whether you are allowed to use the margin scheme at all — then prices every lawful way of treating the sale side by side, so you can see what the wrong one costs before you sign.
GST law as at —.
Your estimate
What that figure is, on your own numbers.
You can provide a different email to use as your login - or the PayPal one
And you can ask it questions. Your report comes with an assistant that has read it and explains any figure in plain English — if you want it. It is given the amounts on your report, never your name or your email, and the conversation stays in your browser.
One email with the figure on this page in it, and a link straight back to this result so you do not have to type any of it again. Useful when the answer has to go past a partner, an accountant or a conveyancer before anybody decides anything.
One email, then only if the figures change or a deadline is close. Unsubscribe in one click. We never sell your address.
Before you sign, or before you settle
GST on a new residential sale is one eleventh of the price. The margin scheme cuts it to one eleventh of the margin — but only if you are eligible, and only if it is agreed in writing before settlement. This works out both, on your own figures.
Yes, it is included, and using it is entirely your choice. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it — nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it.
When you do ask it something, what it receives is the figures on your report: amounts and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never a Medicare number, tax file number or bank detail — we do not hold those in the first place. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given. The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it, and we record that a question was asked without recording what it said.
Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel, including who processes it.
No. You pay once and the access is yours. There is no subscription and nothing renews. PayPal handles the payment, so we never even see your card number.
Then the report tells you which paragraph of section 75-5 closes it, what it would have been worth, and whether anything is left — an amalgamated title, a going concern route, or a request to the Commissioner for more time. That is worth knowing before settlement rather than after, and it is exactly the answer most people are here for. If the report genuinely does not fit your situation, tell us within 14 days and we refund it in full.
GST Margin Scheme provides information, not financial product advice. We are not licensed to give personal financial advice and we never tell you which option to pick. What we do is apply the published rules to the figures you enter and show you what they produce, with every working visible. Your real position is set by the Australian Taxation Office, on the GST you self-assess on your own activity statement, and by the contracts you signed — both the one you bought under and the one you are selling under. Where the chain of title is unclear, a private ruling from the ATO is free and binds the Commissioner.
Pay once and the full report opens on this screen, with every lawful treatment of your sale priced and ranked.
You can provide a different email to use as your login - or the PayPal one
Worked examples
Six developers losing money for no reason and five whose paperwork is already right. Every figure on this page is worked out by the same engine that builds a paying customer's report, on the GST law as it stands, at the moment you load the page. None of it is typed into the markup and none of it is invented — the developments are, the arithmetic is not.
The contract price already includes the tax, so you divide by eleven rather than multiply by a tenth. On a $1,100,000 sale that is $100,000 rather than $110,000 — and getting it the wrong way round overstates the bill by a tenth every single time.
And nothing else. Not the build, not the stamp duty, not the legals, not the interest, not the agent. So the margin scheme is worth exactly one eleventh of what the site cost you, whatever you end up selling for.
Both parties, in writing, on or before the day of the supply — which for land is settlement rather than exchange. After that the Commissioner can extend the time to document an agreement but cannot create one, so a contract that never mentioned it is a contract taxed on the whole price.
Everything below is those three facts in real dollars, for eleven different developments. Worked out on the GST law as at current.
Your own figure depends on four things and none of them is on this page: what you paid for the site, how you acquired it, what the contract says, and whether anything has been let. Three minutes and you will have it.
Prepared for Marsden Street, Stage 2
Every lawful way of treating this sale, and what each one leaves out of the same $4,440,000. Same property, same buyers, same settlement date — the difference is only in how the sale is taxed and what has to be in writing before it happens. Open Show Details on any of them — those panels are live on this page.
Three numbers. Everything after this explains where they came from.
The contract already says the margin scheme applies. Section 75-5(1A) is satisfied. Keep the signed copy: it is the only proof that the agreement was made on or before settlement.
Nothing in how this property was acquired closes the margin scheme. It was bought from a seller who was not registered for GST, on or after 9 December 2008. Section 03 sets out the trail.
Five tests, and every one of them has to pass. Four are about facts that are already fixed. The fifth is a sentence in a contract, and it is the only one anybody can still change.
| Passes | The test | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | Registered for GST, or required to be | Section 9-5. Without registration there is no taxable supply and no GST — and registration is compulsory once GST turnover reaches $75,000. |
| Yes | The sale is made in the course of an enterprise | Section 9-5. A subdivision or a build undertaken to make a profit is an enterprise even where it is the only one you ever do. |
| Yes | The property is new residential premises or potential residential land | Section 40-75(1)(a). Premises that have not previously been sold as residential premises and have not been the subject of a long-term lease. |
| Yes | You did not acquire the whole property through an ineligible supply | Section 75-5(2) and (3). It was bought from a seller who was not registered for GST, on or after 9 December 2008, which is not one of the acquisitions that closes the scheme. |
| Yes | You and the buyer agreed in writing, on or before settlement | Section 75-5(1A). The supply of land is made at settlement, not at exchange. The contract already says the margin scheme applies. |
A private ruling is free and it binds the Commissioner. Where the chain of title is genuinely unclear, the ATO will rule on it in writing on your own facts. It is the only way to be certain before settlement, and it costs nothing but the time to write the request.
The margin is the price less what you paid for the property. That is the whole rule, and the list of things that do not come off it is longer than most people expect.
Which base applies here. The property was acquired on or after 1 July 2000 in an ordinary purchase, so the margin is worked out against what was paid for it. There is no valuation option, and no valuation is needed.
What does not come off the margin. Section 75-14 is explicit, and it is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this whole subject. None of the following reduces the margin by a dollar:
Most of them are claimable as GST credits instead, which is a different and much smaller thing — section 07 has those. On these figures $2,400,000 of development spend produces $218,182 of credits, where taking it off the margin instead would have been worth exactly the same $218,182 — which is why the law does not let you do both.
Ranked on one measure and one only: what is left of the $4,440,000 after GST and after any credits repaid. The top row leaves the most.
| # | Treatment | GST | Credits repaid | What is left | Behind the leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keep it listed for sale while it is tenanted | $283,636 | $2,449 | $4,153,915 | — |
| 2 | Margin scheme, on what you paid for the property | $283,636 | $65,081 | $4,091,283 | −$62,632 |
| 3 | Pay GST on the whole price | $403,636 | $65,081 | $3,971,283 | −$182,632 |
Since 1 July 2018 the purchaser pays part of the price straight to the ATO and the rest to you. It is not the GST, it is rarely the same number, and it lands on settlement day whether or not anybody told the financier.
The withheld amount is not the GST. On a margin scheme sale the purchaser withholds 7% of the contract price and pays it to the ATO at settlement. You get every dollar of it back as a credit when you lodge, so it is a cash flow event rather than a tax — but on a $4,440,000 settlement it is $310,800 that does not reach your account on the day, and a financier who was not told about it is a settlement that does not happen.
Why 7% and not one eleventh. Under the margin scheme the purchaser cannot know your acquisition cost, so the law takes a flat 7% of the price as a proxy. It matches the real GST at exactly one point — where the acquisition is 23% of the sale price. Here it is 29.7%, which is why the withholding overshoots by $27,164.
The notice is yours to give, and the penalty is real. Under section 14-255 you must give the purchaser a written notice before settlement stating whether they must withhold, how much, and when to pay it. Failing to give it is 100 penalty units — $36,400 at the $364 unit that applies from 1 July 2026.
The margin scheme does not touch these, and almost everybody assumes it does. Section 75-20 denies the buyer a credit for the GST in a margin scheme price. It says nothing about your credits on bricks, labour, plans, surveying, commission or advertising.
| What you spent it on | Spend | GST credit | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction and development | $2,400,000 | $218,182 | Builder, trades, materials, plans, surveying, engineering and council consultants where a tax invoice is held. |
| Agent commission and marketing | $96,000 | $8,727 | Claimable on a taxable sale, including a margin scheme sale. Not claimable to the extent the sale is input taxed. |
| Costs that carried no GST | $78,000 | — | Stamp duty, land tax, council rates, most authority contributions and bank interest. No GST in them, so no credit — and none of them comes off the margin either. |
Total credits on this development: $226,909. Claimable in the activity statement period the acquisition is attributable to, and lost for good four years after that statement was due. There is no discretion to extend that, and it is the commonest way a developer loses a five figure credit without anybody doing anything wrong.
The one credit the margin scheme really does cost you is the credit on the property itself — and you only ever had that if you bought the land as a fully taxable sale, which is precisely the case in which the margin scheme is closed to you anyway. The two can never both be on the table.
Everything above is real arithmetic on a fictional development. Run yours and this half opens on your own figures.
And you can ask it questions. Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report and explains any figure in it in plain English. Using it is entirely your choice, it does nothing until you press the button, and it is given the amounts on your report and never your name, your email or your account.
That is somebody else's development. Yours takes about three minutes and costs nothing.
The link may have already been used. If you are still getting emails, write to us and we will stop them by hand.
Guides
Written for the person who actually builds the houses rather than for the person who administers the Act. Plain English, current to the 1 July 2026 GST law, every section and ruling named so you can check it, and the arithmetic worked through rather than described.
Reading is useful. Knowing what this sale is about to cost you in GST is better.
GST on a development
It is the most consequential distinction in property GST and it is decided by one section. New residential premises sold by a registered entity are fully taxable. Residential premises that are not new are input taxed — no GST on the sale, and no credits on anything bought to make it. Everything else in this subject sits on top of that one line.
Section 40-75(1) makes residential premises new residential premises if they:
Any one of the three is enough. The first is the ordinary case for a developer: a house or apartment that has never been sold as a residence before.
The phrase is doing more work than it looks. Premises stop being new on the first sale as residential premises. A sale of the vacant land before anything was built on it is not a sale of residential premises, so it does not start the clock. Neither is a sale of the development entity's shares, or a mortgagee sale of an unfinished shell.
A long-term lease — broadly a lease of at least 50 years on substantially the same terms — counts the same way as a sale. That matters in the ACT, where residential land is held under long Crown leases, and on some retirement and community title arrangements.
Renovations are substantial where all, or substantially all, of a building is removed or replaced. The work can be structural or non-structural, but it has to affect the building as a whole rather than one part of it. A new kitchen and bathroom is not enough. Stripping a house back to its frame and rebuilding it usually is.
The consequence is that a renovator selling a substantially renovated home is selling new residential premises and the sale is taxable — which surprises people who think of themselves as flipping a house rather than developing one. The margin scheme is available to them on exactly the same terms as anybody else. See substantial renovations and GST.
One useful difference: substantially renovated premises are excluded from the GST at settlement withholding regime altogether, so nothing is withheld on the day and the seller reports and pays the GST themselves.
Premises built to replace demolished premises on the same land are new, whether or not anything was ever sold. So a knock-down-rebuild on a block that has had a house on it since 1960 produces new residential premises, and a sale of it by a registered developer is fully taxable.
Subsection 40-75(2) is the exception, and it is narrow. Premises are not new residential premises if, for at least five years since they became new, they have only been used for making input taxed supplies of residential rent.
Two words carry the weight. Continuous: it has to be an unbroken five year period, although it can be any five year period between the premises becoming new and the sale. Only: the ATO's position in GSTR 2009/4 is that holding premises for sale is itself a use, so any month spent marketing them breaks the run and it starts again from zero.
That combination is what makes the rule so hard to fall into by accident and so easy to lose by accident. A developer who lets an unsold townhouse and keeps it listed — which is precisely the thing that holds the Division 129 adjustment down — never reaches the five years. The two strategies pull in opposite directions and you cannot have both. See the five year rule.
When premises are not new, the sale is input taxed under section 40-65. That means no GST on the sale — and no GST credits on anything acquired to make that sale. It is not the same as GST-free, which gives you no GST on the supply and keeps the credits.
| GST on the sale | Credits on the inputs | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable | One eleventh of the price, or of the margin | Yes |
| GST-free | None | Yes |
| Input taxed | None | No |
Which is why an input taxed sale is rarely the good news it sounds like for somebody who has claimed credits on a build.
Vacant residential lots are not residential premises at all — there is nothing to live in. They are potential residential land: land permissible to use for residential purposes with no building on it in use for a commercial purpose.
A sale of potential residential land by a registered developer is a taxable supply on ordinary principles, the margin scheme applies to it on the same terms, and the settlement withholding regime catches it — with one exception, which is a sale to a GST-registered buyer acquiring it for a creditable purpose. See GST on subdivided land.
Work through it in order and the rest of the subject falls into place:
The commonest error is assuming a property is not new because it has been finished for a while, or because it was rented briefly. Neither of those makes premises second-hand. Only a previous sale as residential premises, a long-term lease, or five continuous years of nothing but rent does.
Free: whether what you are selling is caught, and what the GST on it comes to. The full report prices every lawful treatment of the sale.
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About
A property development is a two or three year project in which almost every decision can be revisited. One cannot. GST on the sale of new residential premises is one eleventh of the whole price unless the margin scheme applies, and the margin scheme has to be agreed in writing on or before settlement. On an ordinary suburban development that sentence is worth one eleventh of what the site cost — tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars — and it is decided by a tick box on a contract that goes out while everybody involved is thinking about something else. Nobody in the transaction has a duty to mention it.
None of the rules are secret. The margin scheme is Division 75 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999; new residential premises are defined in section 40-75; the adjustment for renting what you built to sell is Division 129; the amount the buyer hands the ATO at settlement is Subdivision 14-E of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953. The Commissioner has published rulings on all of it — GSTR 2006/7, GSTR 2006/8, GSTR 2009/4, GSTR 2003/3 and GSTR 2002/5 among them. What almost nobody outside a tax practice ever does is put those documents next to one set of real figures, because they are written for administrators, they sit across two Acts and half a dozen rulings, and the arithmetic is spread through all of it.
GST Margin Scheme does one thing: it applies those published rules to your figures and shows you, in full, what they produce. Every lawful treatment of the sale priced, every one of them ranked on a single stated measure, the eligibility test worked through paragraph by paragraph, and every working visible so you can check it, argue with it, or hand it to somebody who can.
We do not tell you what to do. We are not licensed to, and frankly the arithmetic is the part people are missing — not the opinion. Eligibility for the margin scheme turns on how every earlier owner acquired the property, and only your own contracts can prove that. A registered tax agent can read them and we cannot; the ATO will rule on them in writing for nothing, and a private ruling binds the Commissioner. Read this first, not instead.
Short version: we hold as little as we can, we never ask for the identifiers that matter most, and the calculation runs on your own device. The long version is below, because you are entitled to it.
This policy explains how XTO Pty. Ltd. (we, us, our) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, and how you can access, correct or complain about it. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
It applies to calculatedchoices.com.au and to every email we send you. It does not apply to any third party site we link to.
We do not ask for, and you should never send us, your Medicare number, tax file number, tax file number, bank account number, or any government identifier, bank account details or card number. The calculator does not need them. If you send one to us anyway we will delete it rather than store it.
We do not collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act — health information, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or criminal record. Where the calculator asks about care needs it asks about funding categories, never about a medical condition.
Information you give us
Information collected automatically
In your browser, on your device. The figures you type into the calculator are processed locally to produce your result. They are transmitted to us only if you choose to save a scenario to your account. If you never save one, we never receive them.
Two exceptions, and both are things you have to choose to do:
A paid report comes with an optional assistant you can ask questions about your own figures. It is the one part of this site that sends anything to a third party, so it is set out here in full.
It is entirely your choice, and it does nothing until you use it. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you open the assistant and ask a question. If you never open it, this section does not apply to you at all, and the rest of the report works exactly the same.
What is sent when you do ask
What is not sent
What travels is a set of amounts and categories. On its own it does not identify anybody, and we do not send anything alongside it that would.
Who processes it
The request is answered by Google's Gemini API, which processes it outside Australia — see sections 10 and 11. We do not train any model on your figures and we have no arrangement permitting anyone to do so; what Google does with data sent to its API is governed by its own terms, which we do not control.
How long it is kept
Because the assistant is optional, you can have the entire paid report without any of the above ever happening. Nothing in the report is withheld from somebody who never opens it.
We use the following, and nothing else:
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We use Google Analytics and Google Ads to measure how people find and use the site and whether our advertising is worth running. Where these are enabled, Google receives your IP address, device and browser information, the pages you viewed, and — when you complete a purchase — the order reference and the amount paid. Google may set its own cookies and may combine this with data it holds from other sources. Google's handling of that data is governed by its own privacy policy, not ours.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to data brokers, advertising networks other than as described above, the Australian Taxation Office, a purchaser, a lender or an adviser, or anyone who might try to sell you something.
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Payments are processed by PayPal. Your card or account details are entered on PayPal's systems and are never transmitted to, seen by, or stored on our servers. We receive only the transaction reference, the amount, the status and the email address associated with the payment.
Some of these providers store or process data outside Australia, principally in the United States (Google, PayPal) and, depending on our email provider, in other countries. By using the site you acknowledge that we take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the APPs, but that we cannot control and are not accountable for how an overseas recipient handles it once disclosed, and that you may not be able to seek redress in that jurisdiction.
The site runs entirely over HTTPS. Passwords are stored as salted PBKDF2 hashes, not as text anyone here can read. Access to the database is restricted to those who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, but we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
If you give us your email address for a free estimate we may follow up about the full report. Every commercial email we send identifies us and carries a functional unsubscribe link, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). We action unsubscribes immediately. You will still receive transactional email — receipts, access details and password resets — because those are not marketing.
Write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au. We will:
We will respond within 30 days and will not charge you for making a request. We may need to verify your identity first.
If you think we have breached the APPs, write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au with "Privacy complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge within 5 business days and respond substantively within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992, or GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.
The site is intended for property developers, builders, landowners and their advisers selling new residential premises or subdivided residential land in Australia. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
We may update this policy. The effective date at the top changes when we do. Where a change is material we will tell you by email or by notice on the site before it takes effect. Continuing to use the site after that means you accept the updated policy.
Privacy Officer
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au
Plain English, because the whole point is that you understand it. Section 6 is the one that matters most — please read it before you rely on anything here.
By using calculatedchoices.com.au (the site) or buying a pass you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site. In these terms we, us and our mean XTO Pty. Ltd.; you means the person using the site or, where you use it on behalf of another person or an entity, both you and that person or entity.
You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a contract. The site is intended for use in Australia and applies Australian law and the published Australian GST law, principally Division 75 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 and the ATO rulings that apply it only. If you use it from outside Australia you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for local compliance.
GST Margin Scheme is an information and calculation service. It applies the published Australian GST law, principally Division 75 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 and the ATO rulings that apply it to figures you supply and reports what those rules produce, showing its workings and naming the fee schedule used.
It is not financial product advice, personal advice, legal advice, tax advice, accounting advice or tax advice, and it is not a recommendation to acquire, dispose of or deal in any financial product.
You should obtain independent, licensed advice before acting. Any decision you make is yours.
We take considerable care to keep the rates current and the formulas right, and every report prints the schedule it was built on. Even so:
Always confirm before you act.
You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for evaluating the output, for verifying it against official sources, for obtaining independent professional advice, and for every decision you make or do not make. We are not your adviser and no fiduciary or advisory relationship arises from your use of the site.
You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for everything done under your account. Tell us immediately at support@calculatedchoices.com.au if you suspect unauthorised use. We may suspend or close an account we reasonably believe is being used in breach of these terms.
A report you export as a PDF or otherwise save remains yours to keep and to show to family, an adviser or a registered tax agent. That licence is personal and non‑commercial. It does not permit republication, resale, or use as part of a product or service you provide to others.
Our promise: if the calculator cannot properly model your circumstances, or something has gone wrong, write to us within 14 days of purchase and we will refund the pass. No form and no argument. We would rather refund you than have you rely on a number that does not fit.
This is a voluntary commercial guarantee offered in addition to, and it does not limit, your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Refunds are made to the original payment method within five business days of us accepting the request.
You must not:
All content, code, calculation methodology, report design, text and branding on the site is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by copyright and other laws. Legislated rates and government data are not owned by anyone; our expression, arrangement and implementation of them is. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership to you.
We aim to keep the site available but do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free. We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of it, and may perform maintenance, at any time. If we permanently discontinue the service while your pass is running, we will refund the unused portion.
The site relies on third party services including PayPal, Google and our hosting and email providers, and links to third party sites and government resources. We are not responsible for those services or sites, their availability, their content or their terms.
Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled to cancel your service contract with us and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law or any other law which cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. If any part of these terms would do so, that part does not apply.
Subject always to section 15, and to the maximum extent permitted by law:
You agree that this allocation of risk is reasonable given the price of the service and that the service is information rather than advice.
Our liability is reduced to the extent your loss is caused or contributed to by you, including by entering incorrect figures, by failing to verify output against official sources, or by failing to obtain independent advice.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you indemnify us against any claim, loss, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the site, or your provision of the site's output to a third party who relies on it. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own breach, negligence or wilful misconduct.
You may stop using the site at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you breach these terms. Sections 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 survive termination.
Our Privacy Policy forms part of these terms and explains how we handle personal information.
These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You and we submit to the non‑exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the courts entitled to hear appeals from them.
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au