Who we help
Rental returns that will survive the sale.
One property or a portfolio, the discipline is the same: interest apportioned on workings, depreciation carried correctly, and every year's file kept — because the year you sell, every earlier year gives evidence.
A rental property lives two tax lives at once. There is this year's return — rent, interest, agent statements, repairs — and there is the sale that ends the story, when a decade of records is suddenly asked to prove a cost base. We prepare each year so it stands on its own, and so it serves the year the property is finally sold.
Interest is where rental returns most often go wrong. Loans get refinanced, redrawn and offset against, and once borrowed money has gone to private purposes, the interest has to be apportioned — on workings, not instinct. We trace what each loan actually funded, document the split, and carry it consistently from year to year.
The same discipline runs through the rest: depreciation schedules obtained where warranted and maintained rather than abandoned after year one, repairs distinguished from improvements with the reasoning noted, and contracts, settlement statements and capital costs filed where the eventual CGT calculation will find them. We act for investors with one property and with many — from Brisbane, and Australia-wide by phone and video.
What we see on rental schedules
- Interest claimed in full on loans that were redrawn along the way for private spending.
- A depreciation schedule bought in the first year, then never updated for later works.
- Repairs and improvements treated as interchangeable, whichever way suited the year.
- Settlement statements and renovation invoices missing by the time the property is sold — exactly when they are worth the most.
What we prepare
Rental schedules, substantiated
Rent reconciled to agent statements and bank deposits, expenses to invoices — each property on its own schedule, each figure traceable to a record.
Interest and loan apportionment
Redraws, refinances and offset arrangements traced to what the borrowed money actually funded, with the apportionment workings retained on file.
Depreciation, carried properly
Quantity surveyor schedules arranged where warranted, updated for later works, and applied consistently year after year.
Repairs versus improvements
Each significant cost classified on its facts, with the reasoning noted at the time — not re-argued years later from a faded invoice.
The cost-base file
Contracts, settlement statements, capital works and acquisition costs filed against each property in the portal, added to every year you hold it.
When you sell
The gain calculated from the file we have kept — acquisition evidence, capital additions, the history of how the property was used — with the workings retained with the return.
Every rental year we prepare is also evidence for the sale — the eight proofs applied to property mean the cost base is built as you go, not reconstructed after the contract is signed. See our method →
Common questions
I redrew on my investment loan for personal spending. What now?
The interest needs to be apportioned between the investment and private parts of the borrowing, and the apportionment needs workings behind it. We trace the loan history, calculate the split, and document it so the claim is right this year and repeatable next year. If earlier returns claimed too much, we advise on amending them properly.
Is a depreciation schedule worth getting?
Often, but it depends on the property — its age, its history and what has been done to it. Where a schedule is warranted we arrange one through a quantity surveyor, then do the part that is usually neglected: updating it for later works and applying it consistently in every return that follows.
What records should I keep for the eventual sale?
Everything that touches the cost and use of the property: the purchase contract and settlement statement, acquisition costs, renovation and improvement invoices, and evidence of the periods it was rented, vacant or lived in. We keep a cost-base file for each property in the portal, added to each year, so the sale year starts with the evidence already assembled.
Do you act for investors with multiple properties?
Yes — the practice acts for investors with a single unit and for portfolios spread across states. Each property carries its own schedule, its own loan trace and its own cost-base file, and the return consolidates them without blurring them. The more properties there are, the more the discipline matters.
The property was my home for a while. Does that change things?
It can, substantially. Periods of living in a property, renting it out and leaving it vacant can each affect how a later sale is treated, and the outcome depends on your circumstances and your records. We map the property's history in writing now, while the facts are easy to evidence, rather than in the year of the sale.
Should I hold the next property in a trust or company?
Sometimes — but the structure question turns on more than tax: lending, risk, family circumstances and what happens on an eventual sale all bear on it. We advise before the purchase where possible, and whichever way the decision goes, the commercial reasoning is documented at the time. Changing a structure later is costly; writing down the decision is not.
General information only — not tax, legal or financial advice. Advice specific to your circumstances is provided within a signed engagement.
Related reading
Speak to the person who signs the return.
Consultations are with a registered tax agent — by phone or video, wherever you are in Australia.