Purchase cost - renovation before renting

[Poppy Jane]

I purchased a property which settled in Early February ? purchase purely for investments purposes.

I have been renovating the property since then, getting it ready to rent out in early July.

Can I still claims all the purchase costs (building/pest/solicitor etc) if the property hasn?t actually been available for rent this financial year?

Unfortunately I couldn?t rent the property out straight away as it was is poor condition (ex commission).

Are any of these purchase costs claimable? For future reference is it better to rent out the property for a period of time before renovating?

I?ve been so busy of the tools I?ve overlooked the tax side of things.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Paul@PFI]

Hi - Most (if not all) of your expense will be considered preliminary to the rent and its not eligible for treatment as a repair. The view is you acquired it for a lesser price for that condition and you spent the $$ to make good.

Some can be written off however !! I would suggest a QS report now its complete to max the deductions incl assets that fall under the write-off threshold. Your work was not in vain. It can be depreciated. While a former houso's build may not attract cap allowances you may be surprised what does - eg You ripped out and gutted the kitchen and bathrooms ?? Was a new roof added 10 years ago ?? A QS will look for this stuff. Just ensure the QS you use offer a fee based on tax deduction value. ie non deductions = no cost. Have to say its very rare. Big ones are Deppro, BMT etc....The QS will guide what you can add to costbase, what is depreciable etc....

Your owership costs like council rates, interest etc are deductible if your intent was to rent. (Steele's Case)

It doesnt matter about having a tenant for a short time. You would attract wrong types anyway.