I am a lawyer based in Sydney specialising in trusts and I charge $1650 to set one up including legal advice.

I can save you some money and talk you out of using a trust by asking one question – or 2 actually:

Will you be buying in NSW? and, if so
Are you prepared to pay 1.6% per year in land tax?

Yes 2 should be just ‘incidental costs’ and would include costs on acquisition and disposal.

Probably taxed on revenue account. GST and tax on the profit.

When calculating capital gains tax we need to know what the cost base of the asset that was sold is.

The capital gain will be the sale price less the cost base.

To work out the cost base we need to know the costs for the 5 elements described under Section 110-25 of the ITAA 1997 which are:

1. Money paid or required to be paid for the asset.

2.…[Read more]

I haven’t read any of the replies so apologies if this has mention mentioned above already, but I think you could have set this up better in several ways.

1. Just one name on title and loan.
This would have allowed you extra strategies down the track, improved asset protection, improved serviceability overall and have saved you tax.

2. Paying P…[Read more]

In your example it is the first one that is correct. Work out the capital gain first and then apply the 50% discount. This figure = about $36k in your example is added to your other taxable income.

Yes stamp duty could apply in either case, including removing or adding a beneficiary of the trust.

Don’t forget to consider CGT. But generally this is easier going.

I am not an accountant, but a lawyer specialising in ‘structuring’.

Not much you can do really. Have you sought legal advice?

You should never give a guarantee if possible, and if you need to then just one person should.

1. generally not
2. generally not

But stamp duty can still result depending on the structure.

Accountants are not allowed to advise on land tax as this is a state tax and constitutes legal advice. Yet, he should have mentioned the dangers and suggested you get legal advice.

Not sure what you mean by a company ‘nominee’. If a company is acting as trustee this doesn’t change anything however if the company is acting in its own right it…[Read more]

Rental return doesn’t really come into it. If you have other non deductible debt you would want IO otherwise you will be throwing money away by paying extra tax. Even where there is no other non deductible debt you should consider an IO loan with an offset as you can save the same amount of interest while building a buffer which can enable a…[Read more]

Yes uncross them now while you can. Its like taking out insurance – you only need it when you need it but you won’t know when you need it.

Interesting question – I am not sure of the answer, but possibly.

Yes that is right AM.

You generally won’t get free legal advice for commercial matters.

VCAT is a tribunal, not a court, so less intimidating. You could probably do it all yourself, but if the other party has a lawyer they may trip you up.
costs would be limited. i.e. if you employed a lawyer and won, you would possibly get the maximum allowable in costs award to you,…[Read more]

spouses, parents, SMSF (a trust!), related party loans, gifts, etc,

Sorry, this is not an area that I advise on.

I think your tax agent doesn’t understand borrowing, or he is not acting in your best interest.

Crossing securities is dangerous.

Personal money. I have lent money out about 5 times and have had 5 lots of problems. People just think they don’t have to pay it back.