The number of investors relying on tax depreciation schedules to maximise investment property returns is increasing, according to one firm.
BMT quantity surveyors say they’ve had a 15 per cent increase in depreciation schedule business in the 2014/15 financial year compared to 2013/14.
Brad Beer, CEO of BMT, says the amount of time between a property acquisition and the ordering of a schedule has dramatically decreased as well.
“The data suggests that an increasing number of investors are becoming more sophisticated in terms of understanding the tactics available to them to increase their yields.”
During the 2013/14 financial year, BMT found that it took investors an average of 281 days to order a tax depreciation schedule after purchasing their property.
By May 2015, this figure dropped nearly 13 per cent to 245 days.
Quantity surveyors are able to create schedules that detail the depreciation deductions available for items in an investment property over varying time frames.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) allows investors to claim this depreciation as a tax deduction against income received from the property.
“If an investor has not claimed depreciation on an investment property in the past they are able to claim for some of the years that they missed out on and this might result in savings of up to tens of thousands of dollars,” Beer says.
Source: Australian Property Investor :: Popularity of depreciation schedules rising
