July 2024 –
All year long, we give the ATO money. Now it’s our chance to get some back.
So how do you get as much back as possible? (Without getting yourself into strife.)
First up, if you have an existing Depreciation Schedule, is it up to date? Lots of us need to spend money during the year on our rental properties.
Do you have everything in order for your accountant? Busy time of year for them, so the more organised you are the better.
You may also need to make sure you have a Depreciation Schedule in place for any recently purchased property. You can get the ball rolling on that by making an enquiry here. We’ll then have a chat about the property and possibly be able to estimate the potential depreciation. We’ve been doing this for over 20 years, so we are very good at working if a Depreciation Schedule is worth doing.
And if you have bought an older property, don’t assume there is no depreciation left in it. There is a lot of misinformation around about the potential depreciation in older properties.
Key Points
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- If you’ve made improvements to your property during the year, you need to update your Depreciation Schedule. In most cases, Depreciator will do this for you free of charge.
- Make sure you are ‘accountant ready’ this year; the more organised you are, the easier it will be for them to do your tax return.
- If your property was built after September 1987, there will be depreciation to claim. If it was built before then, we’re always happy to look at it online and give you our opinion.
Is your Depreciation Schedule up to date?
If you have a Depreciation Schedule, your accountant would be using it. But what if you have made improvements to your property during the year that need to be depreciated? How do you tell your accountant about them? Do you just hand over a bunch of receipts?
Wouldn’t it be better if you could give your accountant an updated Depreciation Schedule that includes the improvements you have made during the year? We update our Depreciation Schedules free of charge. Always have. Nobody else offers that service. You can find out how to update your Schedule here.
And note we used the word ‘improvements’ as opposed to repairs. Improvements need to be depreciated, whereas repairs can be expensed. How do you tell the difference, you ask? We write about this often, most recently here.
Are you ‘accountant ready’?
I think we just made that term up and quite like it. The more organised you are for your accountant, the easier it will be for them to do your tax return. And the quicker you will get your refund.
There is nothing worse than going to see your accountant and not having everything you need ready for them. They’ll say, ‘So you bought a property last year, let’s see that Depreciation Schedule.’ If you don’t have it, there will be a heavy sigh. Perhaps from both of you. And there will need to be another appointment perhaps. And it’s going to take longer for you to get your hands on your refund.
We have a checklist below you can download to make sure you have everything ready before you see your accountant:
Depreciator Tax Return Checklist for Property Related Expenses
How do you know if there is depreciation in an older property?
If the property was built after September 87, there will be depreciation there to claim. We have written previously here about older properties.
We’re always happy to look at properties online and give you an estimate of the expected depreciation in them – we’ve been doing this depreciation thing for over 20 years, so we’re very good at estimating potential depreciation.
And what about renovations? We have written about this a few times, most recently here. Most older properties have had work done to them – sometimes hard to get good tenants if a property has not been modernised. Often it’s just a kitchen reno, but renovations on older properties can be substantial. And expensive. And when you buy a property, you get to depreciate the renovation done by previous owners. If there are good photos online, we can estimate the depreciation in renovations.
Do you have a residential or commercial property you would like us to help you claim depreciation for? Order online now or call us on 1300 660 033 and rely on our 20-plus years of experience in estimating depreciation returns.
