Angie’s right. Depreciation can give you a “paper loss” to offset the income thus reducing the tax you’re liable for.
Also purchasing in the correct structure (trusts etc) can give asset protection whilst reducing your personal tax liability.
This topic has been touched on a few times here. I find your explananation a little difficult to follow but I think I agree with you.
Even if claiming depreciation does reduce your cost base for CGT purposes it’s only a 50% effect because of the CGT discount. So you may have to pay back 50% of your tax saving when you sell. And if you never sell then you don’t have to pay it back at all.
everyone is on the bandwagon for positve cashflow properties
You get that impression if you read this forum a lot. However I went to a property investors meeting last week and found there was a very strong negative gearing attitude among most of those there. Most of the group had negatively geared properties and were actively looking for more.
Changing trustee shouldn’t trigger a CGT event as the trustee only owns the assets “on behalf of the trust”. As there is no change in beneficial ownership there shouldn’t be CGT.
I’ve never tried to do it, but my understanding is that super funds can’t borrow to invest. So unless you have enough in the fund to buy outright it’s probably not an option.
The protection side of the trust with a corporate trustee isn’t about protecting you from your liability if something goes wrong with the trust’s investments. You’re quite correct that if you are director you can be held responsible.
The protection is that if you are held liable for actions outside the trust (eg: you are sued personally) then you don’t lose the assets that are in the trust – because they’re not yours.
Whether you need this type of protection depends very much on your own circumstances.
Westan,
Will you have to pay stamp duty if you sell your home to the trust?
Could you please explain this in non-accountant language? I think I know what you mean but I thought it was the chattel depreciation that wasn’t recouped.