yes, you can claim the interest on borrowings used for business or investment purposes. This would include anything bought for the property so if you were to borrow to pay for stamp duty or rates etc then interest would be deductible and this frees up the cash you would have used to pay off your home loan soon. This is an important concept to grasp.

Do you know what you are doing? All the roles of the trustee, appointor etc? If not it may be best to get some advice of you could make costly mistakes

No, you cannot transfer without stamp duty and CGT would be pyable if the place was a rental property. Also the lender would require you to discharge the loan and reapply for the new loan as the ownership would be changing.

Why not keep it as is and claim the main residence CGT exemption. Get future ones in the trust.

in the good old days there was such a product. There were loans of 105% or even 110% of the value of the security – ie one one property

It is just a 2 page document – you can find it for free online. Needs to be witnessed by a solicitor – not sure how you would go with them overseas. I think maybe an overseas lawyer could witness.

Your borrow the deposit from the equity in existing properties.

Vita

Think about deductibility. You will have a smaller deductible loan and a larger non deductible.

Nothing changes. You just claim the costs on your tax return.

If it is their only main residence the it is usually CGT exempt. It can still be CGT exempt if it s rented out for up to 6 years while they are absent. If not rented the exemption applied indefinitely. I think residence doesn't matter, but you may want to check this (ie if they are non-residents for tax puposes which is different to immirgation status).

Why not get a power of attorney from them for the propertry and then you can be authorised to act of their behalf.

No sense in paying stamp duty – but if in their names the equity may be trapped, but you could still possibly use it by cross collateralising a few loans.

I should have added that people on low incomes can receive a tax rebate. Thats why the taxable income is lower but they can receive a higher amount and not pay tax – the rebate means that the government pays the first bit of tax for you.

I don't know how it is worked out for kids, but for adults the first $6,000 in tax free, but if you were to earn up to $15,000 the tax would be $1350 but the government will allow a $1350 low income rebate so the net result is no tax payable.