New tax toolkit for rental property owners

The ATO has developed a new rental property owners toolkit for property investors to ensure that mistakes are avoided in their tax returns.

Each year, the tax office identifies fairly common mistakes being made with tax claims made in regard to investment properties. In a recent review of individual tax returns, nine out of 10 taxpayers with a rental property were found to have made a mistake in their tax return.

The newly developed toolkit focuses on areas were mistakes are most commonly being made. These include:

• Renting out a room, a unit, or a whole house on an occasional basis through the sharing economy (such as Airbnb).
• Repairs, maintenance and capital expenditure.
• Any borrowing expenses incurred when taking out a rental property loan.
• Interest on a loan that is taken out to purchase a rental property.

One of the six fact sheets identifies the most common tax mistakes that will cost you time and money, and how you can avoid them. Some of the tips outlined in the toolkit include:

• Keeping the right records.
• Getting your capital gains right when selling.
• Getting construction costs right.
• Getting initial repairs and capital improvements right.
• Apportioning expenses and income for co-owned properties.

Each fact sheet within the toolkit is also available to be downloaded individually. The toolkit is designed to assist rental property owners to get the information they need in order to lodge correctly and to avoid any lodgement mistakes in the future.