who does there own tax?

I

investwest

Hi, we have lost our accountant, well he is no longer doing personal tax.
Is anyone doing there own tax out there? I do my own, as properties are in husbands name, and pretty sure I can manage his too, my only problem is with working out the depreciation. Our former accountant has given me the depreciation sheet and what he has calculated, I actually think he was wrong on one property, as he has a lower depreciation % on that even though it is a newer property and renovated, whilst the others aren't. What is the expected investment life term on a property, say built in 1985 and 1990. Otherwise can anyone suggest a good accountant for us ,we Live in Altona Meadows, thanks.
 
The property built in 1985 is depreciated at 4% pa for 25 years.

The property built in 1990 is depreciated at 2.5% pa for 40 years.

Possibly this accounts for the difference?
Marg
 
investwest said:
Otherwise can anyone suggest a good accountant for us ,we Live in Altona Meadows, thanks.
Click to expand...

I can thoroughly recommend James Gatherum-Goss - his contact details can be found on his business website House of Wealth in Melbourne.

James is an active investor himself and specialises in providing investors accountancy advice.

Not only does he know his stuff, he is real nice guy as well.
 
I can't suggest anyone close by for you, however, I seriously suggest you DO use an accountant. There is no way I would even contemplate doing mine, although I presume mine may be a little more complicated than yours.
 
We did our own tax when we had the first few IPs. This was in the 1980s/early 90s when we filled in paper forms. It's actually a good exercise and ensured we understood exactly where the money was coming/going.

It's not rocket science, and the on-line E-tax has lots of help functions. You simply have to be prepared to ensure you get it right - there are heaps of books etc out there, and it also pays to learn your way around the ATO website.

But we switched to an accountant when hubby received a termination payment from a job. As it was a genuine redundancy it was concessionally taxed, and the difference if we got it wrong could have amounted to an extra $50K in tax - ouch!!

So we have used an accountant ever since, but I still collate all the figures and he simply checks to ensure I have got it all right, included everything we can, and lodges the forms. The visit only takes about an hour and costs a few hundred dollars. My daughter is now a CPA (accountant) and keeps us up to date with any taxation changes.
Marg
 
Rixter said:
I can thoroughly recommend James Gatherum-Goss - his contact details can be found on his business website House of Wealth in Melbourne.

James is an active investor himself and specialises in providing investors accountancy advice.

Not only does he know his stuff, he is real nice guy as well.
Click to expand...

I second Rixter. It's always nice to do business with someone who is nice to do business with. James is a cool guy, proactive and knows his stuff.
 
Hat-Trick

Rob Williams said:
I second Rixter. It's always nice to do business with someone who is nice to do business with. James is a cool guy, proactive and knows his stuff.
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Going once, twice, three times.......Oh, OK, I'd better chip in.....James is OK..........more than OK actually and a great young man. :)

Investwest, you don't need to live close to your accountant although Altona to Fitzroy is no big deal anyway.
 
Sorry I couldn't resist.

Go over there as in - here and there!

Their stuff belongs to them - I own so "i" in the word.
 
That's ok, appreciate the lesson.

fokas said:
Sorry I couldn't resist.

Go over there as in - here and there!

Their stuff belongs to them - I own so "i" in the word.
Click to expand...


My spelling and grammar are shocking, so i actually appreciate it when I'm picked up on it. But you do have to give me a break.I'm doing ok considering I was homeless at 14, due to a really rough home life. I'm doing ok now, better than most of my friends who have degrees, actually make that all of our friends who have degrees.I guess it's through being street smart and a bit of a fighter.Quite proud of myself actually. My husband is doing really well too, and his spelling is worse than mine, even though he got to finish high school. So thankyou, I appreciate it, pick me up on it anytime. Do you know what I find really embarassing, when my five year old knows what a compound word is, and I had no idea, that's hard.
 
Hi. I get my tax done by a professional ... but I like to understand what they are doing too. I bought a book, recommended by others on this forum, called 'Saving Tax on your Investment Property' by Noel Whittaker and Julia Hartman. It's very easy to understand and very informative.

Julia is an accountant and used to post on this site regularly. Unfortunately I haven't seen her here for a while.

This book helped me to organise my paperwork and to ask the 'right' questions.

Don't be offended by any comments made, you'll get heaps of valuable advice from this forum.

http://www.bantacs.com.au/ (this is the link where you can buy the book - but there is lots of free advice on their website)
 
thats great, thankyou.

Minxdamanx said:
Hi. I get my tax done by a professional ... but I like to understand what they are doing too. I bought a book, recommended by others on this forum, called 'Saving Tax on your Investment Property' by Noel Whittaker and Julia Hartman. It's very easy to understand and very informative.

Julia is an accountant and used to post on this site regularly. Unfortunately I haven't seen her here for a while.

This book helped me to organise my paperwork and to ask the 'right' questions.

Don't be offended by any comments made, you'll get heaps of valuable advice from this forum.

http://www.bantacs.com.au/ (this is the link where you can buy the book - but there is lots of free advice on their website)
Click to expand...
I like Noel Whittaker, thanks. Maybe I was a little offended, but found a great forum for adult dyslexics (pretty sure I am one), and felt quite at home, their (not there) grammar and spelling is as bad as mine.
 
investwest said:
Otherwise can anyone suggest a good accountant for us ,we Live in Altona Meadows, thanks.
Click to expand...

A great suburb it is too!

I use Alan Skurrie with Locmans, based at 21 Synnot Street, Werribee. Phone 97417555. He is very experienced and easy to get along with.

Regards Jason.
 
I do my own.

I got an accountant to do it once when I probably didn't need to, but this helped me to do it myself ever since.

As long as you are confident that you are claiming all the deductions you are entitled to, I would say go for it, and use eTax.

You do have to know all the rules relating to depreciation of building and fittings, and what you can claim wrt to improvements vs repairs, if it's all double dutch, get an accountant, but make sure you're organised with your documentation, the less time they spend sorting that out, obviously the cheaper it will be for you.
 
I have so far been doing my own taxes using ETax. I had the depreciation schedules prepared by Scott from Depreciator so I don't need to worry about calculating it and only need to enter the values in.

I keep track of all my other expenses throughout the year so again its only a matter of entering them into the right sections in Etax.

Regards,

Raja
 
thanks

Raja said:
I have so far been doing my own taxes using ETax. I had the depreciation schedules prepared by Scott from Depreciator so I don't need to worry about calculating it and only need to enter the values in.

I keep track of all my other expenses throughout the year so again its only a matter of entering them into the right sections in Etax.

Regards,

Raja
Click to expand...
It's the depreciation side that is tricky, I'll google "Depreciator"
 
Respect for all of you that you do your own accounting when IP's are involved!!! I've tried, but got lost in the numbers too many times, and I don't have the patience. Depreciation....I can barely spell it let alone understand it.

P.S get an accountant, there is much to be said about being able to rely on their advice in the event that the ATO comes knocking on your door (in most cases, i would pressume that your accountants advice must stand for something?).

Also, I would think that accountants carry professional indemnity insurance - so if your accountant gets it wrong (or gets it right but the ATO have a different opinion - which I'm told can happen from time to time haha!!!), you can go after your accountant.

Also, last time I tried doing the returns myself, and got fed up, the visit to the accountant paid for itself...I made up my mind at that point.
 
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