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Helping Investors to Maximise Cash Flow with Bradley Beer
Bradley Beer, Chief Executive Officer of BMT Tax Depreciation
We are a nation of landlords. Working with so many investors in the market, it’s important agents, particularly those working in property management are aware of the kinds of legitimate tax deductions available to investors. Bradley Beer the CEO of BMT Tax Depreciation quantity surveyors, Australia’s largest tax depreciation company believes that thousands of dollars in legitimate tax deductions and deductions may not be being claimed.
When you pitch for business, if you can help owners claim dollars on depreciation, you can show owners that you are not just there to find a tenant – you are there to protect the investment and are trying to maximise returns for the owner.
As clients become more educated, it’s really essential therefore that agents are experts in their field and enable clients to profit from their knowledge. An investor creates wealth through price growth and cash flow so an agent needs to know some of the tools available that facilitate those goals. Bradley says, “I think the job of the property manager is to manage the property and really help an investor by maximising cash flow.” A company like BMT Tax Depreciation can help. He says, “We are just one of those tools in that chest but we're one that's really underutilised, it can be really simple and does actually make a big difference to that cash flow".
Bradley explains what how BMT can help you help your clients.
1. How can an investor claim depreciation on the strata?
Bradley says, “Quite simply when you buy into a strata building, obviously you buy your units, you own your items and your piece there that you get to depreciate. You also own part of those common areas. You own part of that underground car park, part of that swimming pool, if there is one part of that list - part of these things are what you own. Your ownership, or your percentage of ownership - you're able to depreciate. It's something that we see missed quite regularly and it needs to be properly assessed so you do get the maximum deductions out of the property".
2. How does the process get activated? Is it something the strata company does or can property managers activate this?
Property managers can activate this very easily and run a check, by contacting BMT who can very easily let you know how much the deduction should be on a particular property. Once you know, the property manager can provide that to the clients, who can then ask their accountant, "Are we really getting all the cash out of this investment?" As Bradley says, “A lot of it often gets missed".
3. I’m a property manager pitching for business - what should I do?
At no charge to the property manager or the BDM, BMT will give an indication specific to any property very easily, of what the deduction should be.
4. Provide BMT with the address and they will provide an estimate
Bradley explains, “If the BDM gives us the address and knows anything about the property, that's handy to help us, but we can very easily see photos. We can see most things about the property now because if it's been listed for rent some time, we can pull the data from all the appropriate sources and we've built the tools that can give us the estimate. We have a look at it, provide it to the property manager, we can do it at no charge so they can use that as the tool that gives the owner an indication of how much money they should be getting".
He continues, “With so many people not getting the most of depreciation out of their properties, if you're a BDM and you've got a bunch of tools in your kit, when you go to a new listing, you can say one of your tools is – a free estimate. This says to the investor, "We took the liberty of seeing the quantity surveyor and you should be getting X dollars, X thousand dollars in deductions” This really provides a point of difference and shows the client that you want to maximise their cash flow. It says to a client, we understand it's important and we're here to get the most out of this investment for you. Bradley advises to then tell the client, “You really should check out with your accountant because you want to make sure you get the most out of this property, and we understand it's very important."
What happens if a Landlord wants to go ahead?
Bradley says, “If a client wants to take advantage of those dollars, then we'll need to engage in a discussion. We'll talk to him or her about their property, make sure that there's some value to be added. Once that's done they engage us to do the report, we go through, we have a look, we do the inspection, prepare the report. If at any time in that process we see that we don't think there's enough value to be added, we'll always cancel it. If we can't get deductions it's not worth doing, but it's very rare that we can't see some value added by actually going and doing that.
He is emphatic, “No one goes away without more deductions than they had before I got involved with them".
Are your clients profiting from this knowledge?
If you would like to help property investors around Australia to claim maximum tax depreciation deductions, please contact: www.bmtqs.com.au
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