Well, you will certainly be able to claim the depreciation on the residential structure of the building, provided it’s built after 1987. So there’s no change there – and this covers most properties.

Whilst there is no specific ruling on the plant and equipment it seems to me that if you inherit a property with plant and equipment items contained within, they will be deemed to be “previously used” and you won’t be able to claim them.

This would, in my opinion, even occur if the person that you inherited the property from, bought the property brand new.

As I mentioned, there is little guidance on this topic so it might be best to check this with the ATO if this question is relevant to you.

In this case, the answer is yes. The new legislation allows a developer 6 months to find a tenant and sell it as a leased investment without nullifying the depreciation claim to the incoming buyer.

This was a late change to the legislation and occurred after industry consultation between the treasury department and the property industry (including myself).

The answer is yes, you can depreciate an overseas investment property… but there are a few key differences.

The first main difference is with regard to claiming the building allowance. With Australian properties, you’re entitled to claim 2.5 per-cent of these construction costs per annum, as long as the property was built after July 1985. The rate for overseas properties is the same – but the date is different.

Construction of an overseas property must have commenced after 22 August 1990.

So, if you want to maximise your depreciation benefits on an overseas property, look for a newer property built in the last decade or two.

The plant and equipment, such as carpets, ovens, lights, and blinds, can also be depreciated as they would be in an Australian investment property but now they will have to be brand new or not previously used.

If you own an overseas investment property, start claiming the deductions, we do many reports worldwide.

In simple terms yes – provided all the plant & equipment items that were installed were brand new. You will also be able to claim all the structural items installed such as kitchen cupboards, tiling windows etc.

The Budget statement words it like this: ‘Acquisitions of existing plant and equipment items will be reflected in the cost base for capital gains tax purposes for subsequent Investors.’

This video explains the changes and also outlines our new report offering:

Well in order to understand this – it’s best to examine 3 different scenarios:

An investor buys a brand new unit or house for $850,000.

As you can see from the above chart the depreciation amount you can claim if you bought the same property pre-budget or post-budget hasn’t changed.

That’s because a brand new property is exempt from these changes.

An investor buys a brand new unit or house for $850,000.

As you can see from the above the depreciation allowances available have dramatically reduced in the early years now.

Towards about year 8 they level out and aren’t that different. This is because the pre-budget chart on the left-hand side still shows that you can claim the plant and equipment. Whereas the chart on the right-hand side shows how you can only claim the building allowance moving forward.

The key takeaway from this is: That the depreciation allowances on second-hand property built after 1987 are affected most in the first 5 years. After that – there’s not much difference.

An investor buys a residential house or unit for $850,000 that was built prior to 1987 – that hasn’t been renovated.

Well in this scenario it’s all or nothing! Pre-budget we, as quantity surveyors, would visit a property, regardless of its age, and re-value the plant and equipment items like carpet, oven etc. In essence, starting the depreciation process again.

The Government wanted to stop this continual revaluation of plant & equipment and this will be achieved by the new legislation.

As you can see from the chart above if you buy a property that was built prior to 1987, there will be no claim at all if the property is still in its original state.

Why? Well, the plant & equipment will be deemed as previously used, thus no claim applies and in order to claim the building allowance, the property has to be built after 1987.

However, this is very rare, as most properties built prior to 1987 have had some renovation to them, whether that be a new bathroom or kitchen and those costs are claimable.

This is the biggest grey area of all the legislative changes in my view and one that will require further clarification moving forward.

The Government in the Housing Tax Bill Explanatory Memorandum states that if a property is used in an “incidental way” or “occasionally used” then your depreciation eligibility on the Plant & Equipment does not stop if you acquired the plant & equipment prior to The Budget in May 2017.

Incidental Use is described as:

“Use is incidental if it is minor in the context of the overall use and arises in connection with another non-incidental use – for example staying at the property for one evening while carrying out maintenance activities would generally be incidental use.”

Occasionally Used is described as:

“Spending a weekend in a holiday home or allowing relatives to stay for one weekend in the holiday home free of charge that is usually used for rent would generally be occasional use.“

It’s a bit vague, isn’t it?

Does one week a year over Christmas nullify your claim? What about if you stay for Easter and Christmas?

What does this mean for all the Airbnb landlords out there that claim depreciation but move in when times are quiet but acquired the property prior to the budget? They went into that investment doing the maths on being able to claim the depreciation on a pro-rata basis based on the tax laws at the time?

Now if they use the apartment for an unknown time they may be disallowed the depreciation deduction.

Strangely, this Memorandum, differs from the ATO’s website which was updated on the 15th of December 2017 which indicates that “Gail and Craig” who use their property for 4 weeks a year can claim the depreciation? “Kelly and Dean” would appear to be ok as well!

Whilst the Memorandum doesn’t give a time frame… it indicates that a weekend is OK…I would’ve thought 4 weeks would’ve been stretching it?! Who knows – pick a number????

This is at a time when the ATO wants to target Airbnb hosts and pro-rata any capital gain tax exemption that may be applicable.

Go figure.

Hopefully, sense will prevail and if the holiday home is clearly available for rent – like 11 months over the year – it’s still an investment property.

I agree that the constant revaluing of plant & equipment items on very old properties made no sense and needed refinement.

However, I think the approach the Government has taken in disallowing depreciation on properties that are near new doesn’t make a lot of sense and could’ve been rolled out far more logically.