Nearly 300 Canberra home owners and landlords were caught rorting the land tax bills on their investment properties last year, according to ACT Treasury.
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The tax dodgers were each forced to pay back an average of $9500 to the territory's coffers after investigators found properties had been rented for years without the required taxes being paid.
The blitz on land tax resulted in each of the Government's 20 revenue inspectors surging past their designated targets for tax dollars recovered on behalf of the territory, with each investigator recovering about $480,000
According to a Treasury spokeswoman, 298 property owners were forced to repay $2.8million, including penalties and interest, in 2010-2011.
Land tax in the ACT applies to all residential properties that are rented or owned by a corporation or trustee and a total of $55million in land tax was collected in 2010-2011
The spokeswoman said property owners were required to advise the office of the Commissioner for ACT Revenue within 30 days if their property becomes rented or if the property is held in trust. But investigators had launched a blitz on non-compliant landlord and homeowners.
''Compliance investigations highlighted that there were a number of properties being rented for several years without the required notification being given to the Commissioner,'' the spokeswoman said.
''Land Tax compliance investigations were focused during 2010-11 on identifying residential properties where owners liable for land tax had not notified the Commissioner that the property was rented and where land tax liability extended over a number of years.
''The main area of non-compliance has been the failure of the property owner to notify the Commissioner that the property is rented and is therefore liable to land tax.''
She said more than 300 investigations had been carried out with the majority of cases leading to tax having to be paid.
''During 2010-11, the compliance area identified approximately 360 properties that required further investigation and issued 298 land tax assessments for a total of approximately $2.8million,'' she said.
The spokeswoman said inspectors were cross-checking information held by government agencies to catch tax dodgers.
''The compliance area data matches information held by the ACT Revenue Office with a number of sources of information, including information held by other territory and Commonwealth agencies to identify potential areas of non-compliance and to identify properties for further investigation,'' she said.
Utility bills and returned rates notices were also being scoured by inspectors to identify non-compliant landlords.
The campaign helped the Treasury investigators to exceed their individual annual revenue recovery target of $360,000.
''This was due to a strong focus on land tax, resulting in double the target being achieved,'' according to a Treasury report.
The figures exclude a massive $77million payout from global media giant News Corporation to settle a court case over an alleged tax avoidance scheme committed in the territory.
