What is your structure???

Hi Act,

I'm literally in the middle of setting up my new structure so am happy to share.  I currently have two properties (PPOR and a +ve cashflow inv) in my own name.  The only reason the IP is in my name is I had to move quick on the settlement and couldn't set up the trust in time.

Now though I am setting up a family trust with a pty ltd trustee (with me as sole director and shareholder).  The trust will be used for my next property and all subsequent one's.  I'm also setting up some businesses and these companies are being held in the trust as well (well the trustee owns the shares on behalf of the trust but you get my point).  The businesses are only paying me a living wage and all profits are retained within the company of paid to the trust to offset any losses.

Going with this setup it's unlikely I will own anything again in my own name except for future primary residences.

Hope that helps and as an aside I'm using cleardocs.com to setup the companies and trust.  It's fairly straight forward (as long as you don't want to talk to someone!) and very cheap.

Good luck,

Andy

Hi Act09

Firstly welcome to the forum and I hope you enjoy your time with us.

One thing about structure you have to realise is it is not a matter of 1 hat fits all.
All the time we talk with clients who have different requirements and therefore the advice is tailored to suit the clients needs and the time and to be sufficient that it can be flexible enough to work with them.

Certainly the structure that Brisbane Andy has set out may suit his needs but i can tell you will have many flaws when it comes to financing in some cases and also the initial cost will be higher than a standard DFT structure with Personal individual trustees.

As always more information would be required to provide a more structured answer.

Hi Act09,

I agree with Richard.  Be careful with your structure.  You may find you have a lot of hoops to jump through when it gets to financing the deal.  Speak with your broker or bank and ask the issues in getting finance in the structure you have decided upon BEFORE you set it up.  Some investors have set up complicated structures only to find out they have made it so much more difficult to get the finance approved or the lender just won't do it at all.  And if you can't get finance – you can't invest.

I don't want to scare you off but you may be limiting yourself if you get too complex.  Just a heads up!

Cheers,
Tracey

Do you also list your corporate trustee as a beneficiary to the discretionary trust? Alternatively would you list another separate company as a beneficiary to the trust?

I imagine this may be good in years where your trust income is unusually high, and some of that income can be ‘stored’ within the beneficiary company before being paid out to yourself (as a sharholder) as a franked dividend at a later date.

Or do the costs (or any other reasons I’m missing) make it not worth doing this…

Cheers,

.

No real need to name a company as beneficiary as the wording of the deed is usually wide to include any company in which a major beneficiary/trustee is an office holder or share holder or director etc.

Morning Terry,

just woke up and read your first reply and had a little freak-out moment!  Each of the businesses will be Pty Ltd with the shares owned by the trust so I'm happy with that amount of risk.  I had considered setting up two trusts, one with businesses and the other with property but it made it just a little bit too inflexible with moving profits and getting taxed.

Thanks for your comments though, really appreciate them as I'm just a young(ish) self-made guy and there's only so much you can research and teach yourself!

Cheers,
Andy

Yep, that's what I thought. 

When purchasing a property do you use a new trust each time? And do you create a trust prior to making an offer or once an offer has been accepted? In that case, what name do you specify on the contract?

It depends on how valuable the properties are. And in some states there is no stamp duty on a trust deed – so they are very cheap to set up, (no stamp duty in QLD i beleive, it is $550 in NSW now)

Yes, an entity should be created before it is able to enter into a contract. I think there are exceptions for promoters of companys who can enter into contracts before the company comes into existance, but you don't want to risk being charged stamp duty twice (once on your signing and then on the deemed transfer from you to the company).

Units are easily transferred, but stamp duty may apply, depending on the State you are in.