NRAS INVESTING

Hi Gary,
Thanks for your reply. Yes I had seen that page too, but I as I understand it we are supposed to sign a headlease with the consortium. By doing so we grant the consortium the right to grant a residential lease to NRAS eligible tenants. Therefore it is the consortium who has right to the tax breaks. So not really sure where we will stand over the new ruling all depends on which way you read the examples on the ATO site. We are planning to see the builders next weekend so hopefully will find out more info then and keep you posted. The house we are having built is not far off completion so will be doing the paperwork for the lease etc soon.
Lets hope someone who has been through it or further along can give us further info on how the new ruling effects the tax breaks.  

Hi Gary,

We originally were going with Brisbane Property Brokers, but they messed us up a bit as to which house plan was for which plot of land, so in the end we contacted the developers direct and they where very helpful , so we have done everything so far through them. We got in touvh with them on a Monday and I had contracts in my hand on the Wednesday. They have sent us photo's of the progress since the start of the house being built. We are building in Chinchilla they have plots with Surat basin Homes http://www.suratbasinhomes.com.au  they have plots of land already NRAS approved. The consortium is or will be QAHC. As regards finance we had no problems at all we did it through our own home lender and the whole process so far has gone quite quickly.
Hopefully the lease will be sorted out soon bound to be teething problems being a new scheme I suppose but that is the only bad thing so far the uncertainty of it. Good Luck

Hi Gary,
Recieved this the other day not sure if you saw it. We also went out to see the house we are building, its coming along good. Spoke with our builders though and they reckon a lot of investors going for the NRAS are having trouble getting finance and pulling out because of it. We are wieghing up are options as to carry on or rent out to the private market. The house we are building is in Chinchilla so should be in a good position either way.

Mr Mike Myers Chief Executive OfficerQueensland Affordable Housing Consortium Ltd. Dear Mike,I am writing on behalf of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs to confirm that the Government’s intention is that investors receive their full entitlement to the NRAS Incentive.The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for Housing wrote to QAHC on the 24 December 2009 to address the consortium’s concerns related to whether investors are entitled to receive the full value of the NRAS incentive and to address any perceived ambiguity created as a result of the Australian Taxation Office’s ATOID 2009/146, in particular its reference to NEJV and participation in NRAS.  The Minister and Treasurer committed to a workable solution through an initial administrative solution and longer term to a legislative fix.  As advised in the letter of 13 January 2010 the Department has worked with the ATO to finalise an administrative solution to resolving the tax issues for non-entity joint ventures who may be affected in the 2009/10 financial year.  Regulatory and legislative amendments will be introduced in 2010 to effect a permanent fix for future years. An administrative solution has been agreed and is in the process of being implemented and will address the issue where, under current arrangements, certain entities participating as members of joint ventures involving head leasing and sub leasing arrangements may potentially have their NRAS Incentive taxed. The ATO has advised the Department that, depending on the legal form of the certificate, Incentives may be received tax free by the lead agency/approved participant; but they cannot be passed on to other members of the joint venture such as the investor/owner of the dwelling without a potential tax liability being passed onto the investor/owner.  When the lead agency passes on the incentive to the dwelling owner, income tax could be applied to the payment. The administrative solution will resolve the issue by issuing tax offset certificates directly to the investors/owners and in a format that will meet the ATO’s requirements to enable the offset to be obtained by the NRAS investor/dwelling owner without tax applying. The lead agency will also receive a consolidated copy of the certificates with dwelling schedules, as is current practice, for their records. The ATO has confirmed that this approach will meet their requirements. This approach is a short term solution to give practical effect to the Scheme’s policy intent that investors receive the full entitlement of the NRAS Incentive. I hope this letter is of assistance in clarifying the approach to the administrative solution and look forward to working with you to ensure the success of this solution. Yours sincerely Susan FinniganBranch ManagerAffordable Housing Branch8/02/2010   Hope this is of help to you in your decision   

Hi Gary,

We had no trouble at all with finance our IP is almost finished, we went through Heritage building society and they have been great. The builders also commented on how prompt they were paying the invoices for each stage of the building process compared to other banks. What we have to decide as we seem to be the only one that has gone through ok out there is to whether or not carry on with NRAS or rent out to the private sector. Going to see what QAHC and Horizon say about that before making a final decision to sign a lease.
Good luck with yours. Let me know how you get on.