Australia.

Australia abolished estate duty in 1979 and imposes no inheritance, estate, or gift tax under current law. Instead, capital gains tax (CGT) under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 applies on death through CGT events E1 and E2 — though section 128-15 generally provides rollover relief on transfers to the legal personal representative or beneficiary, deferring the CGT liability until subsequent disposition. The main-residence exemption under Subdivision 118-B preserves CGT relief for the family home.

Succession is governed at the state level — each of the six states and two territories operates its own Succession Act, Wills Act, and family-provision legislation. The High Court of Australia and state Supreme Courts handle contested matters. Australia’s distinctive superannuation regime adds complexity at death, with binding death-benefit nominations, dependency tests, and the lump-sum versus pension treatment determining tax outcomes for beneficiaries.

The memoranda in this series address the recurring fact patterns in Australian cross-border estate planning — including the CGT-rollover regime under section 128-15, superannuation death benefits and binding nominations, foreign-resident CGT for non-resident decedents, the Australian Taxation Office’s deceased-estate ruling guidance, the federal-state interaction in succession law, and the absence of estate-tax treaties with Canada and the United States.