Hi there,

Can anyone tell me if you can claim auz tax back on flights if you visit your investment property in the uk?

Cheers

J

I'd be interested to know this too...

I would be very surprised!

The quick answer is yes you can claim a percentage back. So for example my last visit a third of the time I was there I spent doing things for our rental property so was able to claim a third of my airfare. You can also claim other expenses like transport, meals and accommodation if you have got proof they relate to your investment property.

No I'd heard it's definitely true, but to what extent I just wasn't sure...

The actual ATO statement is this:

So if you travel to the investment property and return immediately, you claim the travel. If you also have a holiday, then the air travel cost is almost certainly not claimable.

This also applies in Australia. eg: When we travelled to Sydney, to inspect a property, the ATO would not allow any of the travel as we also visited friends, and stayed for an extra week.

The tax agent had said we could claim. But if we had, and been caught, penalties may have applied.

Surely very hard to prove if travelling back to the UK, especially if you choose to oversee any maintainance work whilst there?

Too reet mawn!

Thankyou this is very helpful. A friend told me that you could claim but I was sceptical but it is great if you just go over to inspect the property. Can you still claim if you were going to sell the property?

As with my experiences with the Inland Revenue, it may be hard to prove, but the onus is on you to prove it..

As long as you also declare the profit, I see no reason why not...

A receipt for a 5l tub of whitewash should suffice

Yes you can claim, hotel, air travel, expenses, but only if your whole trip was in relation to the IP and nothing else. Any visits to family, nights in differing hotels, dinners and a show, tickets to theme parks on the credit card, anything that sniffs of a holiday and you are doomed. Check with your accountant before you try it on.

I've claimed flights back twice this year to sit exams. I've got 2 more trips back in the next 5 months. So far I've not had a problem claiming of my tax. I know this is not an investment but it shows you can claim for trips abroad.

Keel

Doesn't Australia have a self assessment system, a bit like the UK? In which case that you have done this twice doesn't show anything. Also this thread is about investment property not exams, when it comes to tax you can't assume all expenses would be treated the same anyway.