Generally speaking (and very generally) anything benefit you receive from your employer (such as purchase of appliances) is a fringe benefit and subject to Fringe Benefits Tax – ie. same as income tax.

What you should look at is LAFA – Living Away from home allowance – see…. http://www.ato.gov.au for details of the tax benefits

I personally wouldn’t…[Read more]

Not sure that it really helps but it might be worth considering how you account for the capital loss on your alternative investment. My first thought would be (abeit not ideal) offsetting the capital loss against capital gains in an IP via selling one. At least then you might get something for it! You’ll need some advice on that one.

And living with three girls can equally be dangerous

ciciwx wrote:
Don’t knw if anyone offer this type of insurance?   Hey  I rent a house at the moment and share with 3 girls. Lease under my name only, they are house mates.  I also own 2 IPs.  I was chatting with an IP investor the other day. He said if someone cause fire and burn down the h…[Read more]

I think this may be the point of liability insurance – you will find that most contents policies have this (though I would have my housemates on the policy).I experienced this first hand where my tenants accidentally flooded my unit (and subsequently those below!) through their apparent negligence. Their insurance covered their liability as I…[Read more]

and a depreciation report should be <$500

You can accumulate losses whilst non-resident. Have a look for the book "The australian expat – the luckiest person on earth" which has a simple explanation. It also explains depreciation.

You should also think about your liability (Someone with more knowledge should chime in here) but if you are jointly liable for the entire mortgage it will significantly impact each of your serviceability for further investments. This means that each of you are treated as having the full mortgage not just your share! This was always the major…[Read more]

Just manage your risk and maintain the necessary buffers (in our case 2 years unemployed) …. direct property for me is a long term investment (though many here have the skill and time to make it a short/medium term investment)

We haven't had too much trouble with ours – and we do have tenants that you would think twice about this with. (share house – but the guys are quite responsible) We were initially nervous so we originally factored in pool service and chemicals – but ratcheted this back to just providing the service monthly. If the right chemicals aren't available…[Read more]

all costs are salary sacrificed. additional costs over and above are probably hard to argue as it is marginal (maybe 3k / year). I guess the benefits are factored into the additional km that reduce salary sacrifice fbt. 

They did do the initial inspection – albeit with nil comment. the initial condition report was not thorough, reality was that the place was just grotty with some rough edges – reflected in our thorough amendment to the condition report. But does raise the fact that inspections seem really rare in Sydney when I talk to people.I contrast this to my…[Read more]

Relocation is just an inconvenience.I suspect, given advertising, that the agent has good expat market that would yield higher than us anyway so it wouldn't fuss them The owner is an expat as well so there is no close management .That being said, 4 years and no inspection – not sure I would be comfortable with this but each to their own.Happy to…[Read more]

my 2cOff the plan resort in Australia is fraught with potential issues, let alone the Philippines. Make sure you factor in the political risk – it is still a third world country.

I wouldn't be too worried – we are roughly the same age with good salaries and a few IP's – Time is our friend and if you take a ten year view, it is all positive. Remember that super is a larger contributor to the GenX/Y than in the past.

Leasehold (ie. ACT / NT) is the exception.

Be transparent, straightforward and non-emotional. Allow some reasonable allowance for those less fortunate (either emotional intelligence,  financially endowed or other circumstances) and you will be fine.It is an investment after all…. Best not to react and be pissed off.T.

Firstly, I would like to say that this site has been very useful to me over the last 12 months, my suggestions:

1. Long Term Investing
Some (many?) of us apply the buy/hold strategy, and in my case I am income healthy / time poor so it makes sense at my point in life. Some thoughts and analysis on the long term outlook, strategy and how this fits…[Read more]

Originally posted by foundation:
Are they declaring the interest you pay them as income for the purpose of income tax collection?
I can’t believe you’ve left it until now to look into what are crucial issues!

It is a relatively small amount and yes, they are declaring the income.

Originally posted by Benny:
Since then I have been renting it out…

Is this now treated as an IP from the date I put it on the rental market?

Thanks!

Hi Thinker,

I believe this was an IP from the moment you advertised it as a “renter”. But there could be other issues – one of those is the CGT exemption of “your own home”. Will you get to…[Read more]

It is directly backed to backed with a loan to my parents (in their name) from the bank if that makes a difference.