2026 State Snapshots
- Key factors affecting the Commission's recommended GST revenue sharing relativity for each state and territory in 2026-27.
How the GST is distributed
The Commonwealth Grants Commission provides independent advice to the Australian Government on how GST should be distributed among the states. In doing this, the Commission takes account of states’ different abilities to raise revenue and their different costs in providing services.
The amount of revenue each state can raise differs because it depends on things like the value of mining production, property transactions and taxable payrolls. The cost of providing services varies too, based on things like a state’s size, its geography, where its residents live and other socio-demographic characteristics, for example, age, health, income, and education.
Changes to the GST distribution in 2026–27 reflect the 2018 GST distribution legislation. These include implementation of a GST relativity floor below which no state’s GST revenue sharing relativity can fall and Commonwealth top-ups to the GST pool. The Commonwealth also makes separate transitional no worse off payments to the states.