C2 no pm received.

I will be getting into Osaka next tuesday

That book is misleading. Structures don't really help like that.

If you want to plan on maximising borrowing cap then best to speak to a finance broker

Dont do it that way. You will be putting yourself at great risk.

There may not be any stamp duty at all, it would depend on what the assets are and the State the business is located in. Your solicitor can advise you. So changing the trust and causing a resettlement may not be a big issue from a stamp duty point of view. But there is also CGT to consider.

What you should be concerned about it legal liability. How do you know there are not legal issues which haven't arisen yet? You could enter a contract for the current people to indemnify you, but what if they went bankrupt. An extreme eg maybe but what if the commpany didn't pay GST for the past year. You jump on board and they ATO gives the company a bull for $200k. Company cannot pay so they may come after the director – which could be you.

Take my advice and seek legal advice about this. You will not find a solicitor who would recommend you take over a discretionary trust and trustee company. It would be costly to set up too. You would have to change directorships, share holdings, trustees maybe, appointors and beneficiariies.

Using a trust makes it easier to get finance in this regard as you can introduce income guarantors easily without having to change title. This is especially good if down the track, after owing the property, if one person was to get a credit blemish.

Craig, I thought you were going to stop paying the loan for a bit and let it capitalise

There is House of Wealth. James. A google should bring up the contact details.

Good points raised by Mike.

If the trust deed is old you may need it to be updated.

Also depending on the wording, in NSW a change in trustee may trigger stamp duty if changing the trustee results in the new trustee becoming a beneficiary.

So, may be best to set up a new trust and start again. You trust will also get another few extra years of life – 80 years from establishment. Best to look at using a company as trustee now rather than changing later.

And with 2 trustees both will be required to give personal guarantees to a lender.

smaller professional

Your accountant is correct. Under the bankruptcy act (and conveyancing act nsw and even corportations act) there are provisions to allow transactions to be voided in certain instances. see s120 and 121 for example.

If you were to transfer half of your house to your spouse now with the intention of asset protecton – that is to avoid it falling into the hands of creditors then the transaction could be voided indefinitely if you were to later go bankrupt. I say could because not all trustees would investigate. If you go bankrupt and have no money a creditor would have to pay a trustee to examine you and do all the checks and to start court proceedings etc. This is costly and most would think it throwing good money after bad.

If you sold your half of the house to your wife at maket value then later went bankrupt then this is different. I think the clawback period is around 4.5 years in this case.

But, there are other ways to attack an asset. Say your wife didn't work but owned your house with a mortgage. You lived there too and you even paid the mortgage and mowed the lawn. In this situation could be deemed that she actually owns the house for you or owns 50% for you. This is called a constructive trust. Even though a trust hasnot been formally established, a court to construe a trust out of the situation.

If you lend money to the trust then the money is your money. So if the trust were to go down then you would be a creditor. But if you were to go down then the trust would still have to repay the money to you. The trustee in bankruptyc would come after the trsutee of the trust for this sum of money. They may be able to take court action if the trust doesn't pay up. But this is like you lending money to me. It is still your money and I must repay it whether you go bankrupt or whether i die – my estate must pay it

If you are doing it as a business then tax would be payable eventually