ON 25 FEBRUARY 2016, Parliament passed a new foreign resident capital gains tax withholding regime.
The regime applies to contracts entered into on or after 1 July 2016; and is intended to assist the Commissioner of Taxation in the collection of the CGT payable by foreign residents.
Under the regime, a 10% non-final withholding tax will apply to foreign residents on the disposal of relevant taxable Australian property.
SUPERANNUATION, yes, it's still tax free. However, it comes with changes in that if you have more than $1.6m in superannuation at retirement, the amount over those earnings (not the withdrawals) will not be tax free from July 2017.
Not all bad news, as the bits above $1.6m still receive low concessional tax rates (10 or 15%). And, in most cases, it is far better than being taxed outside of superannuation.
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY INVESTORS will generally live in a residential property. So, here is something to consider when you come to buy your next home.
A recent decision in the Supreme Court of Victoria (Tan v Russell [2016] VSC 93) has made it clear that real estate agents do not have authority to receive notices of termination when purchasers seek to exercise their cooling off rights, unless otherwise authorised to receive such notices.
THE FOLLOWING is a little-known (but should be widely-known) ATO explanation on how to calculate CGT on a property that was formerly your home that you subdivide much later. And how the principal place of residence can be lost.
WHILE REAL ESTATE AGENTS (both commercial and residential) must act fairly and honestly when advertising property, there is no doubt that underquoting is a significant problem -- predominantly in the current Melbourne and Sydney real estate market.
Although the New South Wales Government has recently proposed legislative reforms in order combat this problem, Victoria is yet to follow.
What is Underquoting?
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THE QUESTION IS: Have the major corporate tenants been “sold a pup”? Or have their Financial Controllers merely been focusing upon cost savings, rather than employee productivity?
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OBVIOUSLY, THIS IS the question every residential investor asks … whenever they are considering the transition across to Commercial property.
However, you will quickly discover the reasons are rather compelling. [Read more…]
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THE FIRST THING you need to do is come up with some creative ways to address this … AND still maintain your sanity, at the same time.
But no matter what your approach may be, there are several things you always need to do. [Read more…]
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LATE LAST YEAR, Tenders were called for this Hardware Lane property — which closed just before Christmas.
Over the holiday break, negotiations progressed with two parties … without actually concluding a deal.
However, in the process, the Vendor has significantly reduce the price at which he is now prepared to sell. [Read more…]
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THE ANSWER is both Yes and No … depending upon which country you live in.
Last weekend’s Financial Review reported an analysis by Oxford Economics, which predicted the likely effect upon GDP during 2015-16 … of oil being at $US40 Vs. $US84 per barrel.
And a quick summary of that is included over on the right. [Read more…]
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OFFICE VACANCY RATES have lept towards 15% in Brisbane, Darwin, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth. And this takes the national average to 12.4%, as an overall vacancy level.
However, businesses are now leasing space once again in both Sydney and Melbourne — where their vacancy rates are currently hovering around 10%, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. [Read more…]
