Property investor tax accountant in Carrum Downs

No. Properties owned — or under contract — before 7:30pm AEST on 12 May 2026 are grandfathered, and you can keep offsetting rental losses against your salary under the existing rules for as long as you hold the property. The change targets established residential properties acquired after that date.

Not necessarily, and it's the wrong question to answer on a website. Growth accrued up to 1 July 2027 keeps the 50% discount even if you sell years later, so for most long-held properties the majority of the embedded gain is already protected. Selling early to chase a discount can easily cost more in agent fees, stamp duty on a replacement and lost growth than it saves in tax. It needs modelling on your actual numbers.

Often yes, but for a narrower reason than it used to be. Since 9 May 2017 you generally can't claim decline in value on second-hand plant and equipment that came with an established property. What remains is the capital works deduction on the building structure, which for a property built after 1987 is frequently worth more than the cost of the schedule — and the fee itself is deductible. For an older, unrenovated property it may not stack up. We'll tell you which side yours falls on before you spend anything.

Only if the redrawn funds were used for income-producing purposes. Deductibility follows the use of the money, not the security behind the loan — so redrawing for personal spending reduces your deductible interest from that point on. If it's already happened, come and see us; it can usually be managed going forward.

It depends on your respective incomes now, your expected incomes at the time of sale, and whether asset protection matters to you. The 2027 changes shift this calculation, because indexation is available to individuals and trusts but not companies, and because quarantined losses sit with whoever holds the property. It's worth modelling before you sign a contract rather than after.

Generally no. Since 1 July 2017, travel expenses to inspect, maintain or collect rent for a residential rental property haven't been deductible for individual investors, and you can't add them to the cost base either. Narrow exceptions exist for those carrying on a business of letting rental properties and for certain excluded entities.

Victoria's general land tax threshold for individuals dropped to $50,000 of site value from the 2024 land tax year, with a lower threshold again for land held in trusts — so many investors who previously paid nothing now receive an assessment. It's assessed by the State Revenue Office on your total Victorian landholdings excluding your main residence, and it's deductible against rental income. Vacant residential land tax may also apply. Rates and thresholds change, so we work from the current-year figures when we prepare your return.

Yes. We're based in Carrum Downs but plenty of local investors hold property in Queensland or regional Victoria. Federal income tax treatment is the same wherever the property sits; land tax and duty are state-based and differ, and we account for those.