As L.A. Aussie said Landlord insurance is a must. You don't know if  a pipe is going to burst or the tennants damage the place because the RE agent isn't sitting in front of your place all day very day.
I originally went with a broker my work used, but not being able to contact them when renewal time came around made me try Terri Scheer. TS policy seemed good & is one of a couple suggested by RE agents.  Because I was in a hurry to get cover I went with them & did an analysis later. I spoke to a broker associated with one of my managing agents & finished up with CGU and ahve since t/f all of my properties to them & they have arranged a common expiry date under the one policy. Including the building insurance I'm about 10%-15% better off price wise & have broader & better cover (for my properies, but this may not apply to you.) The broker has been great & always returns calls & emails promptly.
Contact some brokers to see what they can advise & compare what you are offered.
Haddo

Hi Giddo,

I haven’t been in the commercial acctg world for a few years now & never been a public acct but your posting raises a few questions & hopefully I can give some useful suggestions. They’re only rough because I’m going from memory & haven’t looked up any references so don’t take them all as 100% gospel.

You won’t get any CGT discount because the house is owned by the coy & coys don’t get any CGT benefits unless it is on the sale of the company & it’s assets upon retirement & they are rolled over into another business or super’n investment. If you try to sell the house to yourself the ATO may dig to make sure it’s an arms length commercial transaction (don’t forget legal & stamp duty either). A valuation with a low result would be helpful & I’m sure a valuer would help without doing anything to get the ATO offside.

Dividends to reduce the net result to $0 for the year of sale may be worth looking at if you want to sell to yourself. Don’t forget the GCT action is the contract date, not settlement date.

I’m also curious about the charging of GST on a residential property. My understanding is that residential rentals don’t have GST applied even though the landlord is a company, it’s classified as being input taxed (unless it’s a short term accommodation such as hotel; a caravan park or similar). This will restrict the GST ITC’s the company can claim. Commercial rentals on the other hand do have GST applied so it would be worth investigating this with your accountant further.

All non-capital expenses incl GST are claimable by the coy in it’s tax return if ITC’s can’t be claimed. It may be possible, not very likely though, for the coy to make an adjustment claim for the overpaid GST but that will depend on whether it has been identified as GST on the tax invoices/receipts issued as well as a few other things.

You may be able to claim home office deductions in your tax return – another question for your accountant. It will depend on whether the coy provides office space and whether you are merely using home for convenience, the amount of work carried out, how the office is set up, whether the coy pays any of the outgoings, etc. The estimate can be floor space ratio or number of rooms for the rent & either of these or some other method that’s reasonable for other outgoings.

Don’t forget with the FBT option that it is charged at 48.5% so for example if the rent is $10k p.a you will be paying about the same amount in FBT, a total cost of approx 20k to the coy (pre-tax). Again get your acct to check out the best option. The coy tax rate is 30% & the top personal marginal rate (>95k) 48.5% incl m/c.

Your acct is going to be your best source of info but if you’re not confident in their ability change to somebody else just like you’d change banks or mechanics.

Cheerz