Accountants provide simple answer to brightline test

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) told the committee to keep tax rules simple, otherwise there will be “unintended outcomes and inadvertent non-compliance.”

By unpacking a range of potential property issues in the Taxation and Remedial Matters Bill, CAANZ highlighted the need for simplification.

The main thrust of the bill is to make residential property a less attractive investment option by phasing out over four years property investors’ ability to claim mortgage interest against rental income for tax purposes (interest limitation rules) and extending the Brightline test from five to 10 years.

Excluded from the interest limitation rules are social, emergency and transitional housing, new builds and the main home, which comes with fishhooks.