Residential Rental Property Owners
Are you a residential rental property owner and about to prepare your rental schedule for your individual tax return?
Before you finalise your schedule, make sure you are aware of the recent changes to the law.
Changes in travel claims
Travel expenses incurred in maintaining your residential rental property are no longer deductible from 1 July 2017. This includes travel expenses for property inspections, collecting rent from tenants, preparing your property for incoming tenants, travel to meet your real-estate agent, travel to attend body corporate meeting and travelling to maintain, repair or make improvements to the property.
The ATO however still allows deductions for property management costs. So it may be worthwhile to engage a property agent to do the inspections, organise maintenance, etc on your behalf.
Changes in depreciation claims
Depreciation claims would no longer be available for depreciating assets acquired after 9 May 2017 if those assets have been previously used (used by a former owner or are second-hand assets).
To be able to make a depreciation claim on assets acquired after 9 May 2017, they have to be brand new assets.
To find out more about the changes and to avoid making the wrong claim, give us a call today!
