Buying a house in a Family Trust

Is this in Australia?

Sounds like you mean:
1. Create a company as trustee and legal owner of the property, and
2. the company will act as trustee for 3 separate trusts. 1 for each family.

I would not recommend this because. Setting up a company is cheap so you might was well have a separate company for each trust.

You need to worry about control of the company. 2 families could control the trustee and disadvantage the 3rd family. There will also be deaths and divorces possibly and control could pass to others outside the family.

If there is one company then all members would have to guarantee all loans too. Bad for asset protection and bad for serviceability.

The only positive point is you will only have one asic fee each year which will save you about $220 pa per company.

This is an australian investing site.

Same or very similar principles would apply though

At the moment I am looking at starting a familly trust and buying properties for us to live in, but not sure which will be the best way. And will it be advisable to transfer the super into the trust and self manage it?

You are unable to live in a property or rent it to a related party where the property is owned by a SMSF.

Cheers

Yours in Finance

There are both legal and financial implications to consider before putting property into companies, trusts and other business entities, as opposed to being owned directly as individuals. On the legal side there are protection and inheritance considerations. On the financial side there are significant taxation implications (both regarding rental income and capital gains on sale). In many cases the timing is crucial. These are complex issues that require specialist legal and accounting advice that suit your circumstances.

Wrong set up. Or maybe better, a less than ideal set up. Your accountant is only half correct too.

Firstly it is not such a good idea to have people as trustees for a few reasons. One is asset protection. If the trustee is sued in their capacity as trustee than all their personal assets are at risk.

It is also not good to have 2 trustees for a few reasons:

1. If the trust goes down both trustees go down with it.

2. Personal guarantees are usually required. If you have 2 trustees then both are at risk as will need 2 guarantors.

3. Because of 2 you will have a reduced borrowing capacity.

Your accountant is wrong in that if you are sued personally and go bankrupt then assets held on trust are not property that can be seize by a trustee in bankruptcy – generally.

This is why it is important to get advice when setting up structures.

This is a legal issue so you should speak to a lawyer.

If you want to change trustees it will be complex.

1. Review stamp duty rules for state of properties and

2. review deed to make sure trustee can be change and how, and if there will be stamp duty on the transfer of title. In NSW there could be if the trustee is a beneficiary.

3. Seek legal advice on the structure of the company which will be trustee.

4. Apply for new loans in the name of the new trustee and personal guarantee of the trustee company.

5. Seek tax advice on the proposed set up. Probably no CGT.

6. arrange a settlement.

Hi, I have been told to setup a family trust due better (Asset protection, legal Tax minimization as profits distributed to trustees and borrowing capacity as I am thinking to buy more than 4 properties) however i am the only citizen who lives here and all my family lives in overseas and are not Australian citizen, Could someone please point me in the right direction? Many thanks in advance

Hi Jessica,

Agree with Terry, you are getting advice that isn't tailored to your situation.

If the trust distributes profit only to you, then there is no tax saving. You would pay the same tax on trust distributions as you would on profit from rental properties if they were held in your own name.

Why is it bettter to get in your own name? Sounds like you are jumping to conclusions prematurely.