WCC 9: Let’s talk taxes

Good morning everybody. Morning, morning. Jason here. Dropping by for another Coffee and a Chat while everything’s warming up. I’ll do the quick intros, hopefully everyone as well. So, Jason Witten’s my name? Good morning for those who are joining for the first time. Welcome for those who are coming back. Welcome back. Always a few smiley, faces or comments on there from the regulars, so welcome gang. Just a quick one for the like, for those who are joining the first time. Being a property investor a 20 years, coaching property investors over 18 across Australia and New Zealand. Done a few property deals in my time. And each morning get together, with the crew. Morning Belinda. And share a few, ideas a few bits of wisdom, a few opinions, a few rants every now and then to keep this, dream alive. Property investing is a marathon, not a sprint, and you need to go the distance you need to, you know, stay the course, keep the pace as we go along. So morning, Justin, Morning, Shaquille everyone there. Great to see everyone jumping on. So listen, you know, one of the classic things or classic inefficiencies challenges, things we need to manage and understand as a property investor are property taxes. Taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes. It’s one of the most taxed, pieces of asset classes in Australia, which is I think pretty terrible to be honest. But at the end of the day, we can’t change that. It’s the politicians and the States that make these decisions, classic conversation going on right now about the idea of stamp duty. I don’t know if everyone remembers this. When GST came in, GST was to come in and then stamp duty was to phase out, it was to be gone. It’s a hideous tax. Most of the world has, doesn’t have stamp duty on, people’s homes. It’s disgusting as far as I’m concerned. And you know, the, government’s kept it around. It really annoys me, but just, because it annoys me doesn’t mean that you know, that I, just go and cry in the corner. We got to work this stuff out as property investors and we need to understand how to minimize tax, taxes and how to maximize our returns. Because you know, at the end of the day you’ve got to money and everyone else bloody wants it. The banks want it, the governments want it. You know, every other institution and, thing out there is looking for your cash and your job is to manage it well and put it in places where it’s going to replicate and, you know support you in the future. So let’s just talk about property taxes at this point in time, ones as a, property investor we are exposed to and ones we can manage, okay. Ones we can manage. So number one, the first tax money, Alison the first tax we’re exposed to as property investors that we can manage is stamp duty. Okay? Stamp duty with your, property purchase adds a cost on top of the purchase of the property. Sometimes pretty significant. And I’ll chuck it out there, gang. What’s the number one way you can, have a 50% less stamp duty on a property purchase. How do you get 50% less stamp duty pay 50% less stamp duty on a property purchase right now I’m going to leave that one hanging out there. So someone might know the answer. So put it in the chat. So stamp duty is calculated it’s a state-based tax and you go to different States, it’s calculated whether you’re an investor or an owner occupier. And, the reality is, you pay it to the States. There’s a couple of people put the answer in there. Judy, you were almost there by new, but Shaquille nailed it. You buy a land and house package because you only pay stamp duty on the land. Ladies and gentlemen, listen up, you only pay stamp duty on the land. If you were to buy a $600,000 property in Queensland today, you would pay $25,000 on an existing property, existing property. Okay? However, if you went and bought a piece of land and built a brand new house on it to the tune of $600,000, you would only pay about $12,000 for the stamp duty ta-da? interesting stuff all right? And, as we go as property investors we need to be smart about keeping the money in our pockets keeping the money in our portfolio, not wasting it because somebody said, “I’ll buy, an existing property cause that’s the best way to do it.” Rubbish. Right? Be smart, analyze why, is that the best way to do it? Because the people who are telling you that don’t know how to do it any other way, right? So for me, gang, you have to be smart. We, aren’t, you know, running around with a gazillion dollars of cash in our pocket we have to make every dollar count and one wastage, one inefficiency right up the front, first thing we do when we buy a property is stamp duty. Okay? Stamp duty. It’s, a issue. We have to manage that expense and there are clever ways to do it. So we need to understand that one. Okay? It doesn’t mean you buy every single house or property as a house and land. But what I’m saying is, if you are managing that sort of stuff then keep an eye on that as you go. And there you go Shaquille there’s another way, I was going to ask that but you got right in there. How do you pay no, stamp duty out of your own pocket? Well, we at PRA use our, coaching bulk buying power and we make vendors pay the stamp duty. We make the seller pay the stamp duty. Yeah mate we’ll buy that, but you pay the stamp. It’s not our problem, it should be your problem. So, you know Shaquille got one of those deals, which is awesome. All right? So there you go again, you can, negotiate in and around that stuff, which is awesome, all right. Stamp duty, let’s move on to the next one a few taxes that we’re exposed to land tax as a property owner, land tax they’re trying to sort of Jimmy the old bloody, you know stamp duty and then have every owner in the country paying land tax. I think it’s a wrought but I won’t get into that one today. But land taxes as investors, you’ve got to be aware of it. It might not show up now, but it will show up later. And that’s why we diversify into different States, land taxes, a state-based tax it’s an entity based tax and it’s an owner based tax, all right? So, you know, diversify your locations which is actually good for your wealth and your security and also good for tax minimization, land tax minimization, gang okay? As we go, forward. Buy properties in different States? Absolutely, Judy, I’m a big fan gang, I’m a big fan, at least having three, three different state locations for your portfolio three, you don’t have to go mad and buy one in every state, but at least three. And everyone listening in should, at least have either a Melbourne or a Sydney in their portfolio. You don’t have to have both, but at least one of those behemoth cities our biggest cities. You’ve got to have a piece of one of them. Okay? You, will regret it if you don’t in 20 years time, if you’ve got… if you can get both awesome, wonderful love it. But you know, Sydney is probably a little bit more expensive. Melbourne is still quite good buying in comparison these days. You’ve heard me talk about that before, Canberra? Absolutely love Canberra, Nicole, and yeah, there you go. If you’re asking a question? Canberra stamp duty is taxed at October in the first year. The politicians look after themselves, don’t they? There you go. All right you know, so, good understanding, of the inefficiencies taxes and, how you can manage your way through that, very nicely, basically at the end of the day gang if you’re smart and you know more things than the regular Joe you end up with more properties in your pocket more cash in your pocket, than giving it away. Don’t waste your money, right? Don’t waste your money. The best money you will ever spend is on some education and understanding about the things you’re going to invest in that best money. That’s going to save you heaps, and then, you know applying that information obviously at the right time, is the, implementation concept. So we’ve got, stamp duty, we’ve got land tax. We need to manage and minimize those gang. You know, how do we do that? A few suggestions. And I’m sure there’s many more, when you sit down with your coaches, they’ll, be able to talk you through it. Now, a couple of taxes on the other, end of this stuff, capital gains tax. How do we minimize capital gains tax? How do we never ever, ever, ever pay capital gains tax gang? Let me hear you say it. You’d never sell ever crikey. Everyone carries on about capital gains tax. Well, don’t sell is not the point. The point is not to sell your frigging properties. The point is to buy them and keep them. However, if you are going to sell anything, you got it Judy you nailed it. If you are going to sell something and that’s part of your strategy, because you are buying or selling whatever. Then there’s ways to minimize that obviously, owning a property for more than 12 months minimizes your land tax or your capital gains tax in your personal name. Don’t buy properties in company names. If you’re going to own them for a long time if you’re going to buy and sell in a short period, it might work. I’m not going to get into that today cause not many of us are into that sort of developing process, but there’s a couple of places you can have capital gains tax free properties. If you ever sell. Excuse me. One, your own home. If you do, do a pre PR upgrade capital gains tax free on your own home and your, properties that you own in super capital gains tax is a lot less inside of super in what’s called accumulation phase and when in retirement phase capital gains tax is zero. And matter of fact, income tax is zero as well. So zero income tax is pretty nice. So minimizing our taxes last but not least is our own personal taxes. So we had those property taxes right there but our personal tax, how can we minimize that? And you guys should all know this one, it’s depreciation our tax deductions we can claim being a property investor. Matter of fact, you can claim depreciation anywhere as a business owner, as a property investor an investor in any asset, it doesn’t have to be property. So don’t get all worried about, you know a couple of dipshit reporters saying, Oh, you know property is no good and you know negative gearing and stuff like that. Don’t listen to that rubbish. Okay? Because the ability to offset a depreciation loss yep dead right Judy is available in every asset class in every nook and cranny of our economy gang. So, you know, take advantage of it. It’s very useful. So get your tax deductions because you get depreciation, which, is not losing money, it’s not negative cashflow, it is depreciation on, you know I don’t know I’m sitting on this chair. It costs a 100 bucks to buy and in a year’s time, it’s worth 50 bucks but I still have the chair, I still get to sit on it. But I’ll technically lost $50 of value, I can claim $50 against my tax taxable income and I get a tax deduction Awesome all right? So there you go. Stamp duty was the, sort of catalyst for today’s conversation. How do you minimize it? There’s a few, ideas there, but again, with taxes you’ve got to manage those across the spectrum. And it’s kind of like a little choose your own adventure or choose a smart adventure as a property investor to make sure you minimize those taxes. Keep more money in your pocket and, go the distance in this gig called property investing. Anyway, gang, that’s about it from me today. Hey, listen, my, recent podcast with a lady called Heather Gardner just dropped out yesterday, go and track that one down. She’s an inspirational lady, she’s very, she’s very awesome. And a country lady, she and her partner ran a $200 million business and, she had, seven kids. You name it, she’s an inspirational lady So go on and have a listen to that podcast she operates in the school of tough love. She’s, inspirational, so go and check that one out if you haven’t already. And I think that’s about it. Yeah Coffee and a Chat done and dusted, go check out my podcast. Sam’s podcast is landing on Wednesday he’s going amazingly. His stuff has just gone from strength to strength So check it out and, yeah, that’s about it gang. Hopefully you’re all well, join me tomorrow for another Coffee and a Chat and, have an awesome rest of your day. And if anyone who hasn’t been to one of our trainings our Property Investor Nights, I’m going to run one because one of our coaches can’t make it on Thursday. I’m going to run one on Thursday for people in Darwin. Doesn’t matter where you are in Australia or if you’re listening in, and if you’ve never heard from us before this might be the first time you’d dropping in track us down on, track us down on our Facebook page or our website. And you can come and dial into the Darwin Property Investor Night it’s a webinar, So you can dial in from anywhere if you’re up for it. All right, gang. Hopefully, hopefully you’re all well, and that’s it for me done and dusted Coffee and a Chat over you guys have an awesome day and see you tomorrow around about the same time, bye bye.

About the Author
From a small town boy growing up in the remote outback of rural Queensland, to becoming the founder of Australasia’s most powerful property wealth creation engine – Positive Real Estate Group CEO Jason Whitton is on a mission to change the way we look at wealth.