Owning Property: Tax-smart Tips for your Investment

The Australian Tax Office has published some tips regarding buying property. This is part of a three-part series summarising those tips, blog posts are also made on advice on buying property and selling a property.

While lodging your tax return for the time you've owned an investment property make sure you:

Include all your rental income in your tax return.

You can claim immediate tax deductions for things such as:

• Loan interest.
• Rates and taxes, including council and water rates and land tax.
• Property management fees.
• Insurance.
• Body corporate fees.
• Cleaning and gardening.
• Repairs and maintenance relating to when your tenants were living in the property.

You can claim tax deductions over several years for things such as:

• Capital works, otherwise known as building costs.
• Borrowing costs.

When lodging your tax return make sure you:

• Include all your rental income.
• Only claim deductions for periods that your property is rented out or genuinely available for rent.
• Don’t claim deductions for periods that you use the property yourself.

Scan copies of your receipts to make it easier to store and access them.

Remember to ensure you can claim everything you are entitled to; you need to keep proof of all your income, expenses and efforts to rent out your property.