There’s been a cacophony of opinion this week filling column inches and taking over the airwaves of property centric media. Refreshingly, the big news wasn’t pandemic related. Nor did it involve a concession speech of any description. No, the chatter has been dominated by a NSW government discussion around the abolition of stamp duty which…
Articles by Mike Mortlock
Mike Mortlock is a Tax Depreciation expert, Quantity Surveyor and Managing Director of MCG Quantity Surveyors. He is a regular property commentator having been featured in the Financial Review and Sky Business. MCG Specialise in Tax Depreciation Schedules and Construction Cost Estimating for investors. You can visit them at www.mcgqs.com.au
What are property investors up to? A long-term study by MCG Quantity Surveyors is helping define investor trends which will flag the property market’s bounce back after COVID-19. The report also took a pre-COVID snapshot of ‘normal market’ trends in place prior to the crisis. We found property investors were pivoting in interesting ways prior to the…
What percentage of property investors had an ‘in-depth audit’ from the ATO in 2019? Last year the ATO announced that they doubled the number of in-depth audits to 4,500, due to an error rate of just under 90% on a sample of investor tax returns. Speaking at the Tax Institute’s National Convention in Hobart, ATO…
Those who know me, know I don’t mind a chat. Whiling away my time via the exchange of ideas is a joy. Best of all, it’s a move out of my professional comfort zone – a chance to expand the mind beyond ‘rates per square metre’ and legislative minutia. Economists, builders, buyer’s agents and investment…
Around a year ago I started a podcast for our property investor clients with the aim of assisting them to get the most out of their investing. We look after their depreciation schedules, but I wanted to put them in touch with experts to assist them with investing overall. The statistics show us that more…
Depreciation benefits have always been helpful to property investors. And again there are some changes in the wind. For the first time in recent memory, the ATO has consulted with the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors regarding their annual review of effective lives. In fairness, I assume they consult more with manufacturers of assets which…
Have you wondered what is depreciation and how a depreciation schedule can save you money? Depreciation is a powerful tool to help investors maximise their cashflow, minimise the holding costs associated with investing and minimise their tax. A lot has been written about various nuances within tax legislation and construction estimating. So I wanted to…
At first glance, this seems like a reasonable question and it’s one we’re asked by residential investors and commercial clients all the time. I’ve written on this topic before but I’m sure in my usual style I went into too much detail and tangential metaphors. Let’s make it very simple in the following example. Say…
Last year new laws have been enacted to deny deductions for depreciation for “previously used” depreciating assets related to the use of residential investment properties. In simple terms, for affected taxpayers, from 1 July 2017, depreciation deductions for items of plant and equipment (e.g. dishwashers, ceiling fans, carpet, and hot water systems) in residential investment…
Every year people complain about Easter eggs being in the shops already in February, it’s one of those perennial water cooler topics like the magpie swooping season. Tax time is no different and for my part, I wish I wasn’t droning on about the end of the financial year approaching every year, but my insatiable…