[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 20, 2007 - 12:03 pm

P.S. It may be worth looking into buy/reno/sell maybe?  
There is no CGT to be paid here if you buy in your own name and not a company name.If you do this once it should be tax free.
What they have here is an assets tax of 1.5% per year. 

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 20, 2007 - 11:56 am

Hello John

Sorry not to have answered before.

Yes the laws in the Netherlands are heavily skewed in favour of the tenant. Many, maybe even most people rent here but the housing is mostly supplied by housing corporations. 

I have not spent time looking into investing in residential property because I saw the problems my husband had with his residential investments. If you have a local tenant in your property it's almost as if you don't own it any more though you are obliged to maintain it. 

There is definitely a shortage of student accommodation and this is safer as sooner or later the student moves on. However I am not sure of the returns and it's a very work intensive investment. I think here much more so than in Australia if you want to keep your property in tact.

The other residential investment that is safer is ex pat accommodation.

Before you jump in do LOTS of DD and don't assume anything works as it does in Australia. The first thing to check is if interest on the mortgage is tax deductible. The interest on the mortgage for your own home is tax deductible but I have the idea that may not be on a res. investment property but am not 100% sure.

Where will you be living in the Netherlands? 

Good luck with your stay and have fun. 
Elka    

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 19, 2007 - 7:37 pm

If you want to live off equity why on earth would you start by borrowing 60% of the value of your assets. People who live off equity only take out what they need to live on plus any IP expenses that they have each year …. assuming their assets have appreciated sufficiently. 

Cheers

Elka 

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 19, 2007 - 6:10 pm

Hello Jim
Assuming you haven't rented out your block of land and therefore haven't deducted any of the expenses off your tax why is it an investment block. 

Certainly while you owned a PPOR you could not treat your block of land as such but as from 14 months ago it seems like a different story based on the information on the ATO site.

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/36890.htm&pc=001/002/026/017/005&mnu=5060&mfp=001&st=&cy=1

However, as Don suggested, you accountant is the best place to ask.

Cheers
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 18, 2007 - 10:32 am

Hello nina10

I can't understand why it's taken 4 years to get any results settling your fathers estate and why, after all this time, you still don't know what the estate is made up of. Surely you should by now know all your fathers assets. It may be worth while going to speak to another solicitor. Between the five of you the cost should be minimal. 

I don't know if the house that is "not worth very much" is in your area but is it possible for you to live in it (saving rent) and renovate it slowly to increase it's value? Some sort of arrangement with your more financially free brothers/sisters may be possible.

Cheers
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 16, 2007 - 10:38 am

clovies wrote:

Alternativly shoudl I ask the tennat direct if they want to buy the house, as I'm prepared to sell.  Has anyone had experience with this and did you go through the agent or direct to the tennant

Hello Clovies

Now I'm a bit confused. My answer was to the part quoted here.

If you have a potential buyer why would you go through the agent. He will expect a commission if he does the negotiating of the sale on your behalf. Am I wrong?  

Cheers
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 15, 2007 - 7:15 pm

Hello clovie

If you are looking to sell the house to your tenants why on earth would you go through your property manager and pay commission.

Cheers
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 14, 2007 - 1:10 pm

Mortgage Hunter wrote:

You can even get capital protected 100% loans to buy shares.  At the end of the period if the shares are worth less you can just give them to the lender and walk away. 

I just can't help myself Simon. I have to ask.

What sort of interest rate are we talking about for such a loan.

Just curious at this point.

Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 10, 2007 - 12:59 pm

Congratulations Xenia to you and Angelo on the new addition to your family. 

Really nice to see that people are responding to the government suggestion to have one for Australia.  

Best wishes
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 8, 2007 - 1:36 pm

Excuse my ignorance as it's a long time since I did any hands on renovations. 

Does the turps work as a drier for the linseed oil. Is that it's intention? 
I used to use 10% Terebin (I don't know if this is how it's spelt) which is/was a paint drier for this and it was great . 
I used to paint 1 or 2 coats on woodwork which I had stripped of all paint (in terrace houses) and it really brought up the grain a treat without being oily.

Love this thread
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 7, 2007 - 12:44 am

Hello GoldCoastGirl

Thank you for posting the results. I'm happy that you can now leave all the stress behind.
I'm glad neither of us owns that unit if it takes so long to rent each time.

Good luck
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 6, 2007 - 12:50 pm

Hello pele

Although this site is basically for people interested in CF+ IP's I have always bought negatively geared property with good capital growth potential and have not been disappointed to date. The problem is being able to support the expense until rents and growing equity catches up.

The solution to speed up this process is to see if doing an inexpensive renovation will increase your rent and reduce the gap.
 
Also make sure you are claming everything that you are entitled to including depreciation which will give you some tax deductions to help with the finances.
 
If you don't have any personal debt (non deductible debt) but have some cash then make sure it's sitting in an offset account linked to your loan as this will reduce your interest bill. Also putting all your earnings into this account will have the same effect.

From reading posts on this forum I believe that an equity loan means that you give away 40% of your capital growth not 20%.  You get 20% interest free from the lender but they want 40% of the capital growth in return.

Not something I would do if you think that your IP will experiance good capital growth.

Cheers
Elka 

 

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 6, 2007 - 11:19 am

Hello chilliaa

In Victoria the SRO uses the last council valuation (site value ) as the bases for the land tax calculations. This is the unimproved capital value of your property i.e land value.

How much land tax they charge will depends on whether you hold all your IP's under your own name or whether your IP's are held in one trust or spread over several trusts.

From your post above I gather that all your IP's are held in one trust. That makes the calculation easier though it may make the amount of land tax you pay skyrocket due to aggregation …. i.e being charged on the total value rather than on each property separately.

Just add all the site values from your last rates notices together and then use the trust scale on the site that duckster provided.

You may like to read the thread I once started about how to minimise land tax. I started it after receiving my land tax bill.

https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forums/getting-technical/legal-accounting/23233?highlight=land%2Ctax

Hope this helps

Elka

 

 

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 6, 2007 - 12:29 am

Hello ourproperty

It's certainly not a market that I would get into. When I first came here to live my thought was that you needed a permit or certificate for everything here, including breathing. A real shock after Australia.

Not a market for the unwary or uneducated in the local laws and conditions. Lots of DD required.

Cheers
Elka 

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 5, 2007 - 1:06 am

Hello ourproperty

Before you consider buying an IP in the Netherlands I suggest you look into the landlord / tenants laws there. They are very very biased towards the tenant. The only safe way to rent out a residential property there is to a company or by the room to students as it's practically impossible to get a tenant out.

Cheers

Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 5, 2007 - 12:30 am

Hello Amanda

Ok. I give up. You win ??.

Cheers
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

August 1, 2007 - 12:52 pm

Hello Lyndon

The best thing for you to do is go to a good accountant who will be able to tell you the pros and cons of each structure.

As a non accountant I have two comments to your post.

Never put your business and your investment properties into the one entity. Why risk being sued for something in your business and lose your investment properties. 

Look into a trust/company structure for your investment properties rather than a company. There are disadvantages to having property in a trust now a days as land tax is higher, but a trust gives you greater flexibility and also entitles you to a 50% discount on CGT if you sell a property which a company does not get.

All things to discuss with your accountant. 

Cheers
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

July 31, 2007 - 9:39 pm

Hello Nucopia

Do you have a good accountant who can explain it all to you because there are a couple  of things in your posts which show that you may not understand the structure your IP's are in and how it all works.

You are in Australia I assume? There is no system in Australia whereby you can defer paying CGT by buying another investment property. CGT must be paid in the tax year that you sold the IP.

Usually a trust distributes all profits (including the CG) to one or more beneficiaries. I believe that if this is not done then the trust is taxed at the top tax rate for undistributed profits… but as I said, I am no accountant so I can't vouch for that part.

The beneficiary then declares this as income on their tax return in the normal way.

The trust also needs to submit a tax return each year but as all profits have been distributed there is no tax to be paid by the trust.
 
I hope this makes it all a bit clearer.
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

July 31, 2007 - 1:54 pm

Hello Nucopia

You've got quite a few things mixed up here. Keep in mind that I am not an accountant.

In a trust/company structure the trust owns the IP not the company. The company is the trustee of the trust. 

The 50% discount you get if you've had the IP for longer than 12 months is not on the tax rate but on the amount of the gain that will be taxed. In your example, if you have a total CG of $20,000 then you will be taxed on $10,000.

CGT is not a separate tax in the same way as stamp duty or land tax. What happens is that you just add the capital gain that is taxable ($10,000 in your example) to your other taxable income for that year and it gets paid at tax time. Any losses, tax credits etc. will reduce the tax you will need to pay.

After calculating the CG and taking the 50% discount, if applicable, just think of what is over (the $10,000) as any other  income for that year. Don't forget that rental income, dividents, interest etc. etc. is all income not just wages.

Hello CyberMicah

The answer to your question is yes. You would need to sell and pay CGT. It may be possible however to buy the same property in your super fund.

Hope this helps
Elka

[elkamMember@elkamJoin Date: 2006Post Count: 722]

July 31, 2007 - 12:37 pm

raddles wrote:

.

Rental will attract the 15% tax on income – capital gains are at 10% if you sell – I really think you need to get some informed advice

This is true in the accumulation phase but not in the pension phase. There is no tax to pay in the pension phase. 
However I agree you need to get some informed advise. 

Do you have a good accountant in Australia who could set up a SMSF for you. The ongoing costs of maintaining a SMSF are about $3500/year for accounting etc. 

Cheers
Elka