Commercial Owners and Tenants Can Maximise Cash in Time for Your Spring Clean 

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE is a high priority for any commercial property owners or businesses.

Not only does it help achieve durability for property and assets, but it also improves the presentation and profitability of a commercial facility. 

These costs can pile up quickly and squeeze money from bank accounts. But much needed relief can come in the form of tax deductions related to these cleaning and maintenance activities just in time for Spring.  

What does Cleaning & Maintenance look like for Commercial Owners?

Cleaning and maintenance can often work differently for commercial and residential owners. A commercial tenant tends to look after most cleaning and maintenance requirements necessary for their business operations. 

However, as a commercial owner, You may find yourself in a situation where the cleaning and maintenance tasks have well and truly stacked up.

This could be for several reasons, such as a tenant not meeting their own responsibilities. Or maybe, you have purchased a property needy some TLC. 

Whatever the case, commercial owners can claim any cleaning and maintenance costs as instant tax deductions, in the same financial year they are made. 

 What about Commercial Tenants? 

Commercial tenants (the business owner operating from the property) undertakes cleaning and maintenance activities on a regular basis and they can claim any products purchased for this at tax time. 

Sometimes, more detailed cleaning and maintenance activities must also be undertaken.

These are usually done by a professional external to the business, for example a handyman, machinery service technician or industrial cleaner.

Any costs associated with these types of services are 100 per cent tax deductible for the business. 

What happens when Maintenance turns into an Improvement?

Both commercial owners and tenants do need to be aware of the fine line between maintenance and improvements. 

Maintenance can often be more extensive and turn into a repair. The good news is a repair is also instantly tax deductible. However, depending on the nature of the repair it could be an improvement.

For example,  a damaged laminate bench top being replaced with a stone bench top. While the new bench top was a result of damage, it would be classed as an improvement – since the bench top was improved beyond its original state.

In this scenario, the bench top would need to be claimed over time using depreciation deductions. These are tax deductions for the natural wear and tear of property and assets over time. 

Depreciation is claimed at tax time and the amount depends on the asset type and value.

This is why it’s essential to enlist a speciality quantity surveyor, such as BMT Tax Depreciation – to prepare a tax depreciation schedule, and ensure any depreciation is claimed correctly and to its full potential. 

Bottom Line: A tax depreciation schedule is a report that outlines the deductions available for all depreciable assets held by the owner. If an improvement is made after the schedule has already been prepared, BMT can easily update the schedule to make the process of claiming ongoing depreciation easy. 

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