Help – Reduce Tax & get family assistance

You could make a large donation to charity to get your taxable income down.

If your properties are in Vic, you may be able to transfer ownership without stamp duty – or nominal $50. But there may be CGT to pay. Maybe consider prepaying interest for one year to bring forward some deductions.

But, I am not sure if increasing your deductions will actually help with the family assistance.

Hi Eric

We are in a similar situation I think. Wife has taken two years family leave. We have 2 IPs.  we currently receive some FTB A & B and childcare benefit.

Our IP's are 50/50 and currently we have a loss of 5k each per year.  My taxable income was reduced by 5k (80-5 =75k) but when it came to assessing my family benefit the gov add that loss to my original taxable income 80k +5k 85k. My wife received Paid Parental Leave, plus other work income (15-5k =10k) but gov added the 5k back to the 15 so for FTA/B consideration our combined income was 105k.  Becasue my income was then over 80k we only get paid base rate of FTB A.  Becasue my wife scraped in under the 24k limit for second income earner we received some FTB b.

This year will be interesting becasue my wife's income is $500 (sold some shares cos no tax to pay) but the IP loss will be 5k so she will have a net income loss. (I believe this loss can be used to offset future CG) but i don't know if that makes her income for assessing FTB/A $5000. 

We have an IP which we would love to sell to pay off our PPOR but if we do we will lose our family assistance and our childcare benefit. Currently we have 3 kids under 4 in childcare while my wife is studying.  If she returns to work part-time we will also lose our assistance. What she would earn in 3 days of work would just cover the childcare costs and petrol – hence she will be working for us to be in the same financial position – not to mention the added work stress).

The second income earner can earn $4000k before it affects payments then it reduces and cuts out at $24k. The centrelink website lists all the income thresholds and payment rates. If you salary sacrifice into super to reduce your taxable income – this too is added back to your original income when assessing eligibility for family assistance.

Anyone else in this predicament?

Hi Terry

Yes we have that option as well. We are renovating the IP we are considering selling and it should be finished in 6 weeks – I hope. Plasterers are finishing this week. It depends what the numbers come out at.  We purchased for 130k in 2004.Will spend 80k on reno – needed restump, rewire, starightening, plaster, the works so basically new interior. Have had to hold it for last 10mths with no rental income (approx 10k).  Took 6 weeks long service as doing most of the work myself except for major stuff. We would lose approx 15k in gov payments and get no childcare benefit (current saving of 15k p.a) so my wife would be working just to pay for the kids to be in care – so she would have to stay home.
The house should be in the 300-340k range.
To be honest we really need someone to sit down with us and go through the options and the figures.  And I am happy to pay for that service but  I don't know where to go. We don't know what to do.

Hi Eric

We also thought that we were ineligible until a co worker questioned me / assumed we would get it as we are in the same profession / similar salaries. Even after this I thought our income was too high for 2010/11 financial year but I recently put the claim in (which is easily done online) and we received $1900 in arrears payments – we have 3 kids so our threshold is higher.

Info from centrelink website FTB A first then FTB B.

Income test

If your family’s adjusted taxable income for this financial year is $46 355 or less, your payment won’t be affected by the income test.

If your adjusted taxable income is more than $46 355 for this financial year, your payment will reduce by 20 cents for each dollar above $46 355 until your payment reaches the base rate of Family Tax Benefit Part A.

Your Family Tax Benefit Part A will stay at that rate until your family’s adjusted taxable income reaches $94 316 a year (plus $3796 for each Family Tax Benefit child after the first). Family Tax Benefit Part A will reduce by 30 cents for every dollar over that amount until your payment reaches nil.

If your family income is close to the limit cut-off, you should check your eligibility after the end of the financial year, once your actual income is known.

If you are a two-parent family in which your primary earner has an annual adjusted taxable income of more than $150 000, you won’t be eligible for Family Tax Benefit Part B. This is regardless of the lower income of the other parent.

If the primary earner’s income is at or below this limit, Family Tax Benefit Part B will be assessed on the basis of the second earner’s income. Secondary earners can earn up to $4891 each year before it affects the rate of Family Tax Benefit Part B.

Payments are reduced by 20 cents for each dollar of income earned over $4891.

If you are the secondary earner and your partner earns $150 000 or less, you can still get some Family Tax Benefit Part B if your income is below:

• $24 912 a year, if your youngest child is under five years of age, or
• $19 382 a year, if your youngest child is 5–18 years of age.

You can put in claims for the previous 2 financial years, assuming you have done your tax.  The outcome may be zero but you never know there may be a few hundred or thousand coming your way.