Empower Blog Tax

Is an SMSF right for you?

Self-managed super funds (SMSFs) are the largest and fastest growing super sector in Australia and for many good reasons. But before you start an SMSF, it’s important to weigh up both the advantages and disadvantages and consider seeking advice to determine whether an SMSF is right for you. The advantages SMSFs can offer a number of features and ...

Read More

Is Negative Gearing good or bad?

With so much debate right now about negative gearing it's really important to try and provide some balance. Is it a good thing or is it a bad thing? So I'm going to come up with five reasons why I think it's a positive thing for the economy and of course I've got to declare my self-interest here because I am a property investor myself. I have a bus...

Watch Video

How Do You Spot a Property Spruiker?

I've been in this Property Investment industry for over 16 years and I'm often asked this question, "How do you actually spot a Property Spruiker?". Lots of people talk about property spruikers but what actually is it? In my view, there's actually three, I guess, people that you can take your information from in this property investment industry. T...

Watch Video

Negative Gearing vs Positive Gearing | Which is Better?

Hello, Ben Kingsley here and today I want to talk about Negative Gearing vs Positive Gearing. Now the difference between the two is an income outcome which basically means that with negative gearing properties, we actually have to put some of our surplus cash into supporting the investment as opposed to positive gearing where we actually get some ...

Watch Video

Seven Property Investment Myths Keeping You From Growing

Investing in property can be a bit frightening if you are unfamiliar with what it entails. When considering it, realise that properties can generally be categorised into two groups: active or passive investments. Active investment requires the investors to be on the run and this could be buying a house, fixing it up and then selling it for a profit...

Read More

The Top 3 Myths of Financial Planning

So one of the key myths of Financial Planning is that our role is to minimise your tax or reduce your tax bill. The reality is our job is certainly a lot larger than that. It's about looking at the long term objectives, how do we position your portfolio, your investments and your savings to achieve that. Tax is simply a by-product of that. And the ...

Watch Video

The era of entitlement IS OVER – What can be done?

Joe Hockey delivered the nation’s 2014 Federal Budget last Tuesday. He was true to his word about it being a tough budget and based on the changes they want to push through the senate and bring into law, it certainly didn’t miss any of us, as their catch cry stated “we are all in this together”. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it agai...

Read More

What is a Tax Depreciation Schedule?

Depreciation is tax deduction for property investors. We invest in property to increase our wealth over time. One thing that we need to do is make sure we claim everything that we are able to claim, one of those thing being depreciation. Items in a property are wearing out over time, the buildings will one day fall over I guess and so the tax offic...

Watch Video

What are the Risks of investing in Residential Property

We can all get really excited about the prospects of creating a great passive income out of property. But one of the big things when we look at 2014 and we see all the hype around property investment is there’s still actual risk involved in investing in property. So today I wanted to share a moment with you in this time and talk about the risks t...

Watch Video

John Maynard Keynes – does that name ring a bell for you?

Well if you are someone who has studied economics, it will definitely ring a bell.  Those who haven’t well, this English Economist was influential in helping the world get through the Great Depression, by convincing governments to use fiscal and monetary stimulus to kick-start the global economy with his macro-economic theory around business cyc...

Read More

The 7 Biggest Property Investment Mistakes

If I were to ask you what do you feel more comfortable with, investing in shares or property? The majority of people would say property.  The reason for this is because property is something that we all have experienced in our lives, so naturally we automatically assume we understand it better than shares or managed funds.  Shares on the other h...

Read More

Stamp Duty; friend or foe?

There is a lot of news in the media right now about Stamp Duty on the Transfer of Land. For a buyer, the cost of stamp duty is a significant upfront cost when buying property. We often get asked by the media about stamp duty and how Australians (and in particular, Melburnians) feel about it. It was an interesting topic to discuss because many poi...

Read More

ATO Ruling on Interest Capitalisation

After earlier releasing a draft ruling on interest capitalisation the ATO has finally released its ruling: TD 2012/1. In property investing terms, interest capitalisation is where a person or entity is claiming interest costs on top of the original interest costs and instead of paying the original interest the borrower is paying down other non-d...

Read More