You couldn't have a trust with you as trustee and sole beneficiary – otherwise it wouldn't be a trust, and there would be no discretion.But what you do is have a trust with the beneficiaries being X, children of X, step children, spouses, grand children, grand parents, cousins, and any company in which any beneficiariy is director, shareholder or…[Read more]

steve4750 wrote:
I might also mention that my business partner and I are both unmarried and with no dependents… From what I've read, the benefits of discretionary trusts are that you can distribute income within a family to avoid higher tax rates… Are there any other benefits?Cheers

Asset protection and estate planning. tax can also be…[Read more]

Hi StevenIdeally he should be director – the director goes down with the ship sometimes or at least may get a bad credit rating if the company goes down. But, it is the director that runs the company so they do have some power that a non director will not have such as signing contracts etc so it could be dangerous if you are not also director.I…[Read more]

Really, all you are doing to paying one loan down with another loan – which is refinancing. It doesn't matter if you pay the whole loan or just a little, the principles are still the same.eg. $100,000 loan with monthly repayments of $100 pw principle and $900 interest. You borrow $1000 from your LOC and pay the main loan. You are not claiming the…[Read more]

I would never use a partnership as it is very dangerous. Always use a company for business because of the limited liability – you could use two companies in partnership if need be or one company with half the shares owned each. Watch out for being director as this is risky and also watch out with control – who owns the majority of the shares will…[Read more]

number 8 wrote:
Interest expense used to pay principal is not deductible… call it what you like. I would ask for a private ruling on this one if this was your intention.http://www.birchcorp.com.au

No. 8, think about that. How can you pay principle with interest. What would happen is the principle of one loan is being refinanced with another.

an 'escape clause' is generally only valid until the contracts are exchanged. Without an unconditional contract is is unlikely that a vendor would go to the trouble of preparing for settlement.If you have a new buyer then you wouldn't need finance as you would not actually settle – but this is extremely dangerous. It is also extremely hard to…[Read more]

michaelandre70 wrote:
i am a bit confused. so anyone who does not live in Australia, but have an investment there would be treated as a non resident? i also would like to know whether the non residents have to pay more tax than the residents or not.

Residency depends on a number of factors. You could be living overseas but still a resident. You…[Read more]

That is probably the most common way. The other way is to gift cash to the trust.But consider the asset protection side of things too.

Why do you think paying principle woudn't be deductible.?What about if you had a loan with Bank A and you refinanced it with bank B? You would be borrowing to pay principle

either!

I have property in Thailand and a friend with property in Indonesia.I would strongly advise you not to invest there!

Residence for tax purposes is different to residence for immigration purposes – so you could be here on a permanent resident visa, but still be a non resident for tax or you could be an Aussie citizen and a non-resident for tax.Non residents generally pay 29%+ in tax with no tax free threshold. But different types of income are taxed differently.…[Read more]

wobblysquare wrote:
Trusts, Can i askIf i set up a trust. Buy a house (using trust). Pay deposit from LOC.1) Any money the trust loses stays locked up in trust. But can i carry the loss forward into subsequent years until the trust makes a profit?2) Can i claim the interest on the 20% deposit from LOC as a tax loss against my personal…[Read more]

Anthony K wrote:
Hi TerryW and AllYou are right Terry however I use a special kind of trust which has compartments that can segregate assets used in a business.This allows the trust to keep real estate apart from the trading activities. We use a specially designed trust and strategies withhigh cash flow businesses like Child Care or hospitality…[Read more]

luke86 wrote:
Anthony/Terry-Can you set up two trusts- one business trust and one porpoerty trust, and then distribute the profit from the business trust into the propety trust too offset any losses incurred in the first few years of operating the property trust?? Will this have any asset protection implications i.e. can any creditors of the…[Read more]

PowereggYou shouldn't be buying property in the same trust as your business. Your chances of the business failing are high and therefore a high chance that creditors to the business getting their hands on trust assets.Don't forget the extra land tax for trusts too.And, as long as you are not an employee of the trust then I don't think there would…[Read more]

Options are excellent for anything increasing in value. If you secure an option then you may be able to assign the option to someone else and avoid settlement altogether. If you sign a normal contract to purchase land then you will have required to settle, momentarily even if you onsell it – but you would have no need for finance etc – this should…[Read more]

I remember reading Henry Kaye used to get 3 or so reports done and then use the best one!

yeah, i can't really see any point – except maybe keeping your name off title records?