ATO focuses on rental property owners

With Tax Time 2016 just around the corner, the ATO is encouraging rental property owners to check out the information on their website to better understand their obligations and get their claims right, where they have some how-to videos as well as a comprehensive rental property guide (go to ato. gov.aulrenta/ and ato.gov.aulrenta/videos).
The ATO has stated they will be paying close attention to excessive interest expense claims and incorrect apportionment of rental income and expenses between owners.  It is also  looking  at holiday homes that are not genuinely available for rent, and incorrect claims for newly purchased rental properties. They said their ability to identify incorrect  rental property  claims  is becoming  more sophisticated due to enhancements in technology and the extensive  use of data  It provided the following  case studies.

Case Studies

Holiday home not genuinely available for rent

John has a newly purchased rental property that had not returned any rental income. He told the  ATO that the property was occasionally advertised on community noticeboards and websites. John was unable to prove there was a genuine arrangement in which he actively sought tenants, or had taken sufficient steps to genuinely  advertise the property for   rent.
A rental loss of almost $60,000 was disallowed  and penalties were   applied.

Interest

Rental property owner Sarah reported high rental interest claims and was required to provide bank statements as evidence to the ATO. The statements showed borrowings well in excess of the purchase price of the rental property. The interest charges relating to the private  part of the loan were disallowed.
Sarah was required to pay more than $15,000  back to the  ATO.

Incorrect claims for a newly purchased rental property and false claims

Nancy recently purchased a rental property and had her tax return amended by the ATO to remove deductions for repairs, capital works and incorrectly apportioned borrowing expenses. Nancy had inappropriately claimed a deduction for repairs to defects present in a newly  purchased  property and the capital works and borrowing expenses should have been spread over several years. Nancy also provided false  receipts for property  management fees undertaken by a family  member.
Nancy was required to pay more than $57,000 back to the ATO as well as over $10,000 in penalties for making a false statement in her tax  return.

Record keeping

Ethan was required to provide evidence to the ATO to show that their property was genuinely rented at market rates. Ethan was unable to provide any documentation to show that a rental arrangement was  in place.
All rental income and expenses were removed from his tax return and he received a tax bill of more than $12,000.

Apportioning  expenses  between joint owners of a property

A rental property claim was investigated by the ATO where the rental expenses had not been apportioned correctly. The property was jointly owned by a couple but the higher income earner claimed the larger proportion of the  expenses.
The expenses were adjusted to reflect the ownership interest and the higher earner had to pay back more than $8,000 in tax.