Can your accountant set up a discretionary trust for you or do you need to involve a lawyer? If you do need to involve a lawyer can anyone recommend one in Wagga Wagga who is accomplished at what they do and upfront about their fees and charges or am I better off dealing with one from Sydney through phone calls and online correspondence.
Thanks
Jojo
Trusts are legal devices and although many accountants set them up you really need a lawyer. A trust is just a relationship between various parties involving property and non lawyers cannot give advice in this regard as it is legal advice. If a non lawyer does set one up they will use a deed written by a lawyer, but you need advice to go with it.
Accountants or tax agents can give advice in relation to the tax aspects of trusts.
Hi Terry,
Thank you for answering. I was a bit worried it was a silly question. I have a lot more to learn about trusts and the decision to start investing through the use of a trust or in one or more of our names. I finished reading my copy of ‘O to 130 Properties today and have been doing further online research into the topic of ‘trusts’. We are a couple, no kids, one works FT, the other casually. I noticed on one of the threads someone suggested a trust could be set up as a holding company? Do you or does anyone know how that works?
What if I need access to my positive cash flow profits and they are tied up in a trust with a company as a beneficiary that can only pay a wage? Are there work arounds? I remember reading in one of Steve chapters if you start investing in your own name and then move over to a trust it makes it harder to keep getting loans? Is there somewhere I can go to do more research on this topic?
I own zero investment properties and am keen to get under way.
A trust will have a trustee, beneficiaries and property. Not sure what you mean by ‘holding company’ but a company can be appointed as trustee and/or as a beneficiary.
The income of a trust must be distributed or the trustee will pay the top marginal tax rate. If you are the trustee or director of the trustee company you can control where the income is paid to. Subject to the deed, the income could go to you or your family or to another company you control. There is no need to pay a wage.
If you own property in your own name then you would need to pay stamp duty and CGT to get it into a trust.
I mean an SMSF is a Trust – i’m sweet with that, come family trusts and others -= Tez is the king….or queen – depends who you speak to and which city your in.