The emergency services levy, line by line

The shape of the calculation

RevenueSA builds the levy in a fixed order.

1. Variable charge. Capital value, times the area factor, times the land use factor, times the levy rate.
2. Fixed charge. Added to the variable charge. It is the minimum payable for each property, $50 in most cases.
3. General remission. Taken off. This is the State Government’s contribution on the owner’s behalf: the gap between the levy at the prescribed rate and at the lower effective rate.
4. Any concession or other remission. Taken off.
5. Arrears added and payments already made taken off, leaving the total due.

Location matters because the state is split into four emergency services areas. Regional Area 4 is Greater Adelaide, the combined metropolitan council areas, the City of Adelaide among them, and its area factor is 1.0. Residential land has a land use factor of 0.40. The levy is not subject to GST.

A worked example for 2026–27

Take an owner-occupied house in Greater Adelaide with a capital value of $650,000. For residential land in 2026–27 the prescribed levy rate is 0.000792, the effective rate is 0.000324, and the concession effective rate is 0.000170.

An example only, computed from RevenueSA’s published 2026–27 rates and formula. A real notice also carries arrears and payments, and an owner of several properties has the levies added together on one notice.

Now the same home, owned and lived in by someone who qualifies for the concession. Two things change: the general remission is worked out at the lower concession effective rate, so it grows, and the $46 concession comes off as well.

Again an example only, computed the same way. The concession is described as up to $46 a year, so a real notice can differ.

Who gets the concession

The concession is for your principal place of residence, and only one property per person, married couple or domestic partnership. You need to be the titled owner or hold a life interest, and to hold an eligible concession card or receive an eligible Centrelink payment. The cards and payments are the same family as those for the household concessions in Folio 01.

The Department of Human Services, not RevenueSA, handles the applications, using the same household concessions form. Pensioners who already get a water rates concession may find it is already applied, so the government suggests checking the last levy notice or SA Water bill first. Residential park residents are not eligible, because park operators do not normally pass the charge on.

The notice, and paying it

Notices go out progressively between August and October. If paying in one go is hard, RevenueSA lets owners split the levy over four consecutive monthly instalments by applying online, without needing to call. A different schedule is possible as a payment plan, and RevenueSA asks owners to raise that before the due date. While the agreed payments are kept up, no interest or penalty levy is charged.

When the property is sold

Because the levy follows ownership on 1 July, a seller who sells later in the year stays liable for that whole year’s levy. No law requires it to be split, though RevenueSA notes that conveyancers commonly adjust it between buyer and seller at settlement. A Certificate of Emergency Services Levy Payable shows the current year’s levy and any unpaid amounts from earlier years.