The Week that was in Property

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) released taxation statistics for the 2012-13 financial year earlier this week.

From a residential housing market perspective the data is interesting because it provides insight into those who own residential investment properties and of course how many of these property owners are negatively geared.

The key statistics from the data release were:

• 1,967,260 taxpayers claimed a net rental income (15.4% of all tax payers)
• Of those individuals claiming rental income, 64% declared a net loss (ie were negatively geared) and 36% recorded a net profit (ie were positively geared).
• The ATO reports that there was $41,986,149,270 in rental deductions over the year however, the value of these rental deductions fell by -3.9% over the year.
• 706,950 taxpayers claimed a net rental profit of $6,651,603,089 with the number claiming a profit up 8.3% and the value of the total profit rising 8.2%
• The average of these profits was $9,409 per taxpayer, virtually steady from $9,417 the previous year
• 1,260,315 taxpayers claimed a net rental loss amounting to $12,045,667,067 with the number claiming a loss down -4.2% over the year while the value of these losses declined by 16.3%
• The average of these losses was $6,123 per taxpayer, down from $7,316 the previous year and average losses were at their lowest level since 2009-10
• Of the 1,967,260 taxpayers that claimed net rent, they claimed a total of $5,394,063 in losses which was -34.6% lower over the year
• Across the tax brackets, those in the $30,000 to $80,000 tax bracket claimed the greatest proportion of total rental losses (37.6%) followed by: $80,000 to $180,000 (35.6%), Greater than $180,000 (12.8%), less than $18,200 (12.7%) and $18,200 to $30,000 (1.3%)