With appologies to Terryw and co, i respect their opinion – but, sorry i buck the trend here.
There are hundreds of thousands of people running business's in Australia – and most of them use a pty ltd structure (a company).
Why? Because they are simple, standard and flexable – perfect if you choose to 'trade' (buy/sell) in property.
Whereas trusts are the opposite – complicated, all different and anything but flexable.
Perhaps if you are cashed-up, aged, fat gutted (joke!) with a big family, not pushing the red line, not aiming fo deals, not wanting to trade, asset rich & income poor/low – go with a trust.
However – if you treat your investing/developing like a business – which it is – you want a structure that is simple, standard and flexable, that provides
*) at least a $5000 head start on land tax in NSW (that's $5000 extra you will pay each year with a trust)
*) pty ltd – cheaper to set up (becuase all the modern trusts use a pty ltd as the trustee anyway)
*) possibilities of selling a portion to your partner (as above) – via a simple share transfer
*) banks love pty ltd (as per threads above) because they know who they are lending too
*) On selling? capital gains? I hear you trusters say? Again, great theory. Companys are on a 30% tax rate, what's the top individual tax rate, 48% or something? And – not much in the way of capital gain out there at present.
*) On selling? and i don't get this – why take the $$ out the company – what for? Keep your $$ in the pty ltd, to build something big, Yes, the $$$ needs to stay in the pty ltd because it is going to spring board you into the next deal.
*) in summary – a better entity for a trader
Again, i apologise becuase this view point is counter to the info raised in previous threads.
But i struggle with – "what is the best structure", stuff, blanket, same for everybody.
More appropriate would be – "what structure is best suited to you and what you want to do long term"
