A complicated rental and taxation question

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Macnatt
Member
@macnatt
Join Date: 2008
Post Count: 53
January 8, 2008 - 1:01 am
My Husbands company provides accomodation for us in the regional town we live in as part of his salary package. If we were to buy a house through the use of a trust and rent it to the company who provides it to us as accomodation can we still claim the tax deductions.
We originally bought a house in our own names and rented it to the company for a couple of months and we lived in it but our accountant said we could not do this so the company now just pays a living away from home allowance to cover our accommodation expenses.
I hope someone out there has the expertise to help as or accountant does not seem to be able to think outside the box at all.
Natalie
Scott No Mates
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@scott-no-mates
Join Date: 2005
Post Count: 3,856
January 8, 2008 - 2:40 am
You've lost me a little… If you lease the house to the company, you can claim the deductions as it is a rental property. If the company then pays you a LWAFH allowance then it is up to you how you spend this money & where you live, as long as you are not leasing the property back from the company this is fine.
Is there any chance of living in one of the other company rented properties & swapping with the other owners?
Macnatt
Member
@macnatt
Join Date: 2008
Post Count: 53
January 8, 2008 - 3:06 am
HI
Are you saying you think it is ok for the property being owned in my husbands name to be leased to the company who supply it to us as accommodation and then we can claim the tax deductions. Because this is more in our favour than getting the allowance. When we intailly set it up the company was paying $575p/w rent for our property which was market value and included utilities. However the accountant who did our tax return last year said he rang the ATO who said we couldn't do it because we as the owners were living in it.
Which is why I was thinking if it was owned by a trust with my husband as a beneficiary and leased by the company we would not personally be considered the owners.
The other house they lease is too small for our family as we did originally try to live there. We now get the LAHA allowance and use it to pay the mortgage but it is less money $2000 a month and we can't claim the tax deductions.
Natalie