Hi

I am not an accountant, but….

1) SInce you lived in the property before renting it out, you could still possibly claim it as your main residence – and sell it CGT free. But since you have purchased a new property, this changed things a bit. You can only claim one property as your main residence. So if you claim the first one, then the second property could not get the CGT exemption during the overlap period.

I think you can have a choice on which you chose – maybe the one with the least growth during this period! But remeber, property 1 you only own 50%, property 2 maybe 100%? – so maybe more tax when you factor this in.

2) I think your figures are good, but you also need to take into account buying and selling costs – such as stamp duty, agents fees, legals (buy and sell).

You will also need to add back any depreciation that was claimable – whether you claimed it or not I think.

3) you could need a valuer to do the valuation – as it would have been then – maybe tell him/her what it is for as the higher the valuation, the less tax.

These days it maybe cheaper to pay a loan than rent the same property.

I only know of one case where a trust was attacked and that was the Richstart one, ASIC… In the Matter of Richstar Enterprises Pty Ltd ACN 099 071 968 v Carey (No. 6) [2006].

If you do a search on "richstar asic" you will find heaps of interesting articles.
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=richstar+v+asic&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Have a read
esp http://www.cgw.com.au/images/PresentationNotes13thSeptember.pdf is a good one.

Don't forget the trust assets do not belong to the trustee. They are just held in the trustee's name. So if one trust is sued the assets of that trust are at risk, but assets of other trusts should be safe –  even if the same trustee. Besides, the trustee can be sacked as soon as your hear of trouble.

Its like if you were sued all your assets may be at risk, but if you were also a trustee, then the assets of the trust would be safe(r).

Discretionary trusts are not 100% safe, but I think they are the best thing out there and still pretty safe.

Only the owner can claim deductions. If your wife is not on title, then she cannot claim. In this sort of climate then negative gearing effects would be small so you won't be saving too much tax by just having the property in the highest income earners name. But there could be big CGT savings later on if half the CG could go to the non-working spouse.

new loan for each property. I would never have one big loan.
When, or if, you get some equity, then get a LOC as well – but each property stand alone, no cross collateralisation.

Hi Ice

You need two separate trusts for asset protection, not ease of accounting!

If you lend money and charge interest you will have to declare this in your tax return as it is income. If you gift to trust A and Trust A lends to Trust B, then trust A can claim it. But the person or trust borrowing the money can claim the interest they pay as a deduction too. So Who lends who what and at how much will depend on your situation. You will need proper written loan agreements and you may have to pay stamp duty on the loan so check with your accountant or solicitor.

Some brokers charge, especially for the vehicle loans or business loans, and especially if the loan is small. The lender may also pay them something as well.

If you sell your house to your trust then stamp duty will be payable. There are many things others to consider here too so do some research. You can rent it out and still claim it as your main residence for up to 6 years, but cannot claim the main residence if it is in a trust.

I don't know what bonus you are referring to. If you have owned a place before as your main residence, then you couldn't get the FHOG.

If you are going to be charged a fee to change to PI, then you might as well move as there are some good specials out there now.

An ABN is meant for people running a business. If you back date an ABN when register you are saying that the business started at this date in the past. This may not cause problems, but you may find the ATO might query it. If you started a business why no income in the tax return etc. Nothing major.

If you are registereing an ABN for a trust then that is a different matter. You could not really back date it as the trust deed will be dated and stamped by the office of state revenue. Trusts will also require their own tax returns too.

Hi Peter

Most loans are generally portable – you keep the loan but just change the security.

Low Doc loans require all the same information as a normal loan – the only difference is they don't need to see proof of income.