It is important to understand that it certainly can be too late to claim depreciation deductions. For example, in research studies of a sample of 1,000 of our residential property investor clients, 6.7% of them waited more than two financial years after purchasing their property to organise a depreciation schedule.
The significance of this is based on the fact that you can back claim up to two financial years' worth of depreciation deductions. After that, your accountant needs to go back and file an amendment for previous years tax returns. It can certainly be done, but in general terms, two financial years is the maximum. Therefore, our data showed that 6.7% of the investors would miss out on deductions, even allowing for the two year back claim. What would that mean to them in real terms? Well, on average, they each lost $20,537. That's a fair chunk of deductions and could easily be $7,000+ gone from their back pocket.
There is some good news though, the time it takes for an investor to organise a schedule is going down. At C21 Newcastle we are proud to be working alongside the team at MCG Quantity Surveyors. We can arrange on your behalf for a tax depreciation schedule to be completed, and of course, there is no charge for us to do this for our clients; we want to help you maximise your returns.
So the education around the entitlements seems to be helping ensure that people don't miss out. However, if you're worried that you may have missed out, minimise any potential damage by speaking to a tax depreciation expert as soon as possible and be reach out for some free advice on your potential claims.
Anthony Booth is a Quantity Surveyor and Managing Director of MCG Quantity Surveyors. MCG Specialise in Tax Depreciation Schedules and Construction Cost Estimating and are a proud referral partner of C21 Newcastle. You can visit them at www.mcgqs.com.auor book a call with Anthony at a time that works for you through this link Book complementary call with Anthony