Also, you will probably pay hardly any tax anyway – or maybe none at all. It is still worth minimising it as much as you can, but not a reason not to do it, or to give up.For some good info, i suggest you go to bantacs.com.au and look at the PDF booklets on developing and tax.

You want to enter into the business of developing, but don't want to pay tax? What makes you different to other businesses? 

Most IO loans are for around 5 years, then reverting to PI automatically. Some banks go up to 10 years, others 15 years. If you want to stay on IO after this intitial period some banks require you to requlify again – so have to supply updated payslips etc.

You say the house is in your mum's name, but you borrowed from the bank. Are you on title too? – not that it matters.Board is not considered income – if it is only contributions for food, electricity etcsee para 17 of Tax ruling IT 2167 http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?docid=ITR/IT2167/NAT/ATO/00001But your brother is claiming rental…[Read more]

You might as well put your money in a ING account.

You could ask them to get a copy of their criminal record check, but you couldn't get it yourself. Whether this is unfair discrimination against people or not is tricky.Murderers may make good tenants – but it may be hard to ask for a rent increase.

I don't really see what the problem is. You probably won't have to pay much tax anyway, and even if you do just think most businesses pay a lot more.You can only have one main residence – which is free from CGT. So if sell the first one tax free the second one will become tax free from when you move in. It will only be the period in which you had…[Read more]

zimby wrote:
Could some-one please clear up some stuff on Interest only loans.From my understanding with IO loans you only pay the interest on the loan for a period of time, thus payments are lower and the principal loan is still the full amount to gain maximum tax benefits.When the IO period ends you're left with the full loan ammount and less…[Read more]

Sounds similar to the LOC, but one difference is you will need to fix rates for the full year to pay interest in advance.What is a DHOAS?

Did you notify the other party you were withdrawing and was this notification in writing and given before the cooling off period expired? If you signed a contract you are bound by it, but may pull out within the cooling off period.

Glennsa wrote:
Some may say instead of slaughtering our own mortgage with that kind of extra money we could afford another four or five IPs now.  Sure, that is an option, but this is our first forray into IPs so we want to ease ourselves in, so to speak, and also with the window of paying out our own mortgage so very very close it would be nice…[Read more]

Look at using the trust – assuming it is not involved with the business.

I think a land surveyor measures land. A quantity surveyor measures fixtures on land.

I am not a tax advisor, but know that redrawing from a loan means 'borrowing'. So this can creat big problems later on if the interest on the loan is ever claimed. Using an IO loan with a 100% offset is a way to avoid this.

I would suggest you do a search here for some recent threads on capitalising interest. You could set up a LOC and then use that for all IP expenses and keep your cash for your home loan – you would save heaps of tax along with paying your home loan off sooner.

Yes, it is common for IPs to cost money initially. But the idea is that they will be growing in value more than they will cost you. (not always the case though).Have you conisdered setting up your loans so you could borrow this shortfall so that it is not taking money away from paying off your PPOR?

The Bantacs mob charge about $350 for the private ruling which is very cheap i think.But, one of my friends who is ex-ATO said that applying for a private ruling is like waving a red flag at a bull. I think he meant that if you don't get the ruling they may be looking hard at you to see how you claim things.

It is pretty hard to get a personal loan too. Much easier to get the much larger home loan.

The unwritten rule in business is never buy a property – or other assets – in a trading company.What would happen if your company would go bankrupt? your property would go with it.A far better way would be to set up a discretionary trust. This is much safer than using your own name. You should also talk to an accountant about setting it up cause…[Read more]

With sole traders, income and expenses are just added to other income. same with property. All income is added up and all expenses deducted. But the ATO is wary of business that run at a loss.