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Tax deprecation benefits associated with owning an investment property can be significant, so it is important that property investors claim their full tax deprecation benefits each financial year.
Understanding how you can benefit from tax depreciation is as simple as owning a car.
If you buy a new car, you will understand that every year it depreciates in value. The same principle applies to property. If a property is being used for investment purposes, the Australian Tax Offices allows the investor to claim the decline in value of the building by way of a tax deduction.
The amount that can be deducted depends on the age and value of the building, but it varies between 2.5 to 4 per cent of the capital works value of the building each year.
An investor can claim these tax benefits by using the services of the tax depreciation specialist who prepares a tax depreciation schedule.
A depreciation schedule is a report undertaken by a quantity surveyor company, such as DEPPRO. It should generally be undertaken when the investor buys the property.
A quantity surveyor, also known as a construction economist or cost manager, is one of a team of professional advisers in the construction industry.
Th adviser estimates and monitors construction costs, from the feasibility stage of the project through to the completion of the constructed period. After construction, they prepare tax depreciation schedules for property tax depreciation purposes.
The quantity surveyor produces a tax depreciation schedule, a physical snapshot of the property, for clients.
For example, DEPPRO sends out a staff member to the client’s property and they fill in a report and take pictures of the property to estimate depreciation benefits.
This depreciation report itemises the age of the property, what materials it is built from, the internal fittings such as carpets, window treatments, appliances and so on. An estimated value is placed against these various items and they are depreciated depending on their age and value.
The investor gives this report to their accountant and this is used by them to work out how much tax benefits they can obtain each year.
You only need to do one depreciation report for a property and it can be updated each year by the accountant if the investor, for example, installs a new kitchen.
The cost of a depreciation report prepared by DEPPRO is around $600, and this is tax deductible and covers the lifetime ownership of the investment property.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Bennion
Paul Bennion is the managing director of DEPPRO tax depreciation specialists. DEPPRO is Australia’s leading property depreciation company, specialising solely in the preparation of tax depreciation reports for residential, commercial, industrial and leisure investment properties.
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