What is the lodgement deadline for individual tax returns in Australia?

For the 2025-26 financial year, the self-lodgement deadline is 31 October 2026. Tax agent clients may qualify for extended deadlines.

What happens if I miss the tax return deadline?

The ATO may apply Failure to Lodge penalties starting at $313 and increasing every 28 days until the return is lodged.

Can I lodge my individual tax return completely online?

Yes, vankine offers fully online tax return services with secure document upload and electronic lodgement.

How long does it take to receive a tax refund?

Most refunds are processed within 10 to 14 business days after electronic lodgement with the ATO.

Can vankine lodge returns for previous financial years?

Yes, vankine regularly lodges prior year tax returns and helps clients become compliant with the ATO.

AUSTRALIA'S REGISTERED TAX AGENTS | 25 YEARS EXPERIENCE

Investment Property Tax Return Services in Australia

Home » Investment Property Tax Return Services in Australia

Owning a rental property comes with more tax complexity than most investors expect, like interest apportionment, depreciation schedules, repairs versus improvements, and capital gains when you eventually sell.

Get any one of these wrong and you either lose deductions you were entitled to, or you attract ATO attention for claiming too much.

AMA Accountants has helped over 2,000 + Australian residents and property investors across Australia to lodge accurate, ATO compliant investment property tax returns.

Whether you own one rental property or a growing portfolio of investment properties, our CPA-certified, ATO-registered tax agents make sure every legitimate deduction is claimed, and every figure can be defended if the ATO ever asks.

2025-26 Tax Return Lodgement Deadline: 31 October 2026

Self-lodgers must file by this date. Clients registered with a tax agent like AMA Accountants may qualify for an extended deadline, so contact us before 31 October to secure your spot.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR OBLIGATIONS

What Is an Investment Property Tax Return?

An investment property tax return isn’t a separate return from your individual tax return, but it’s your regular annual income tax return with a rental property schedule included.

In this Tax return, you declare the rental income you received during the financial year (1 July to 30 June) and offset it against the allowable expenses of owning and managing that property.

If your deductible expenses are higher than your rental income, you have a net rental loss.

For most Australian investors, this loss can be offset against other income, such as salary and wages, because this is a strategy commonly known as negative gearing.

If your rental income is higher than your expenses, that net profit is added to your taxable income and taxed at your marginal rate.

Getting this schedule right matters for two reasons: it affects how much tax you pay this year, and it builds the record the ATO will look back at when you eventually sell the property and calculate capital gains tax.

Do You Need to Declare Rental Income?

If you own a property that is rented out, and also available for rent, or used to generate income in any way, you are required to declare that income in your tax return. This applies whether you:

Rent the property out full-time through a real estate agent
Rent out a room or granny flat while living in the rest of the property
List the property on Airbnb, Stayz, or a similar short-term platform
Have the property genuinely available for rent, even if it was vacant for part of the year
Co-own the property with a spouse, family member, or business partner

Co-owned properties need particular care. Rental income and expenses are generally split according to legal ownership interest, not according to who actually paid the mortgage or did the work and getting this split wrong is a common trigger for ATO correction letters.

What Can You Claim on an Investment Property?

This is where the real value of using a registered tax agent shows up. The ATO allows a wide range of deductions for rental properties, but the rules on timing, apportionment, and what counts as a deduction versus a capital cost are detailed, and the ATO uses data-matching and rental property benchmarks to flag claims that look out of line.

What Can You Claim on an Investment Property?

Loan interest — interest on money borrowed to purchase or improve the rental property (but not the principal repayments, and not interest on any portion of the loan used for private purposes)
Council rates, water rates, and land tax
Building and landlord insurance
Property management and letting agent fees
Repairs and maintenance — fixing something that’s worn out, damaged, or broken (as distinct from an improvement, see below)
Gardening, pest control, and cleaning between tenancies
Strata or body corporate fees
Advertising for tenants
Bank fees and accounting or tax agent fees related to the property

Repairs vs Capital Improvements — the Distinction That Catches People Out

A repair restores something to its original condition , replacing a broken hot water system with an equivalent one, fixing a leaking roof, repainting after wear and tear. These are generally deductible in the year you pay for them.

A capital improvement makes the property better than it was, or replaces an entire asset with something different, like renovating a bathroom, adding a deck, or replacing a Laminate kitchen bench with stone.

These aren’t claimed as an upfront deduction. Instead, they’re either depreciated over time or added to the property’s cost base for capital gains tax purposes when you sell.

Misclassifying a capital improvement as a repair is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes that rental property owners make.

Depreciation: Capital Works and Plant & Equipment

Two separate depreciation categories apply to rental properties, and the rules differ significantly:

Capital works deduction (Division 43)

The structural cost of the building itself (bricks, concrete, fixed fittings) is generally deductible at 2.5% per year over 40 years, for eligible properties where construction began after September 1987.

This is often the single largest annual deduction for owners of newer properties, and it’s frequently missed by investors who don’t get a proper depreciation schedule prepared.

Plant and equipment (Division 40)

Items like carpets, blinds, air conditioners, and appliances can also be depreciated.

However, since 9 May 2017, investors can only claim depreciation on plant and equipment they purchased new and deductions for previously-used plant and equipment already in the property when you bought it were removed for most residential investors.

This is a rule a lot of self-lodgers still get wrong, particularly on properties bought second-hand.

A professional quantity surveyor’s depreciation schedule is usually the best way to make sure both categories are captured accurately and defensibly.

Borrowing Costs

Costs directly related to taking out the loan and its including loan establishment fees, mortgage broker fees, and lenders’ mortgage insurance, are deductible, but not all at once.

If the total borrowing costs are more than $100, they’re generally spread (amortised) evenly over five years, or the loan term if shorter.

What You Can No Longer Claim

Since 1 July 2017, individual investors can no longer claim travel expenses for the purpose of inspecting, maintaining, or collecting rent for a residential rental property.

This applies even if the trip is genuinely for property-related purposes because it’s a blanket rule, not one based on your intent.

Capital Gains Tax When You Sell

When you eventually sell an investment property, any gain is generally subject to capital gains tax (CGT) in the financial year the contract is signed, not the settlement date. A few points matter here:

If you’ve held the property for more than 12 months, individuals are generally entitled to a 50% CGT discount on the gain.
Your cost base includes the purchase price, most acquisition and disposal costs (stamp duty, legal fees, agent commission), and capital improvements, but not amounts you’ve already claimed as capital works deductions, which reduce the cost base instead.
If you’ve ever lived in the property, you may be entitled to a partial main residence exemption, calculated based on the proportion of time it was your main residence versus rented out.
From 1 January 2025, foreign resident capital gains withholding (FRCGW) applies to the sale of any Australian property, at a rate of 15% of the sale price, with no value threshold. Even Australian tax residents need to obtain a clearance certificate from the ATO before settlement to avoid having 15% withheld by the buyer and remitted to the ATO by default.

Selling an investment property is exactly the kind of one-off, high-value transaction where a small error in the cost base calculation can cost thousands. For that reason, it’s worth having it reviewed before you sign a contract, not after.

What's Included When AMA Accountants Prepares Your Investment Property Tax Return

Rental Schedule Preparation

Full preparation of your rental property schedule and income tax return, prepared and lodged by a qualified, ATO-registered tax agent.

Deduction Maximisation Review

A Thorough review of your loan structure, expenses, and any improvements made during the year to correctly classify repairs, capital works, and depreciable items.

Depreciation Schedule Coordination

If you don’t already have a quantity surveyor’s depreciation schedule, we can point you toward one and make sure it’s applied correctly to your return.

Negative Gearing & Loss Offset Review

Confirmation of how any net rental loss interacts with your other income and marginal tax rate.

ATO Compliance Check

Every rental schedule is reviewed against current ATO benchmarks and guidelines before lodgement, to keep your audit risk low.

Capital Gains Tax Planning & Calculation

if you sold a property during the year, we calculate your cost base, apply the correct discount and exemptions, and help you navigate clearance certificate requirements.

Secure Online Document Lodgement

Encrypted document transfer and electronic lodgement through our registered tax agent portal.

Notice of Assessment Explanation

Once the ATO processes your return, we walk you through the outcome and confirm your expected refund or payable timeline.

How Our Process Looks Like

Book Your Appointment

Online or In-Person

Book an appointment with us. During the meeting, we will ask you a few questions to better understand your actual requirements regarding your investment property tax return.

Send or Bring Your Documents

Secure Document Collection

After the meeting, we will need your investment property documents to ensure that we don’t miss anything when preparing your property tax return. We will send you a document checklist, which will help you gather and provide all the required information and documents.

We Prepare & Review Your Return

Professional Tax Review

After collecting your documents, our team of CPAs, registered tax accountants, and tax agents prepares the complete rental property schedule, correctly classifies repairs versus capital improvements, applies depreciation, and checks the return against current ATO rental property benchmarks.

You Approve and We Lodge

Final Review & Lodgement

We send a full summary before lodgement. Once you approve, we lodge electronically with the ATO. Most clients receive their Notice of Assessment within two weeks, with refunds typically arriving 10–14 business days after that.

AMA Accountants

Company Statistics

20,000 +

Returns Annually

20 +

Tax Consultants

20 M

In Claimed Deductions

25 +

Years Experience

Where We Serve Property Investors?

AMA Accountants is based in Adelaide, South Australia, serving investment property clients across all Adelaide suburbs and from the CBD and inner ring through to the northern growth corridor and coastal communities.

We also provide investment property tax return services to property investors across Australia, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Darwin, and Hobart, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, and Toowoomba, with the same CPA-certified, ATO-registered expertise, wherever your property (or you) happens to be.

Common Investment Property Issues We Fix

Missed Depreciation Deductions

Missed Depreciation Deductions Many self-lodgers, and even some other tax agents, don’t claim the full capital works and plant and equipment depreciation an investor is entitled to.

If you’ve never had a depreciation schedule reviewed, then this is often the single largest opportunity we find.

Incorrectly Classified Repairs

Incorrectly Classified Repairs: If a capital improvement has been claimed as an upfront repair deduction in a previous year, then this can be corrected.

But it needs to be identified and, if necessary, amended before the ATO does.

Late or Overdue Rental Schedules

Late or Overdue Rental Schedules If you’ve fallen behind on lodging returns for a rental property, then we can prepare and lodge outstanding years and communicate with the ATO on your behalf.

Second Look Assessments

Second Look Assessments Not sure your previous accountant claimed everything correctly?

We review prior investment property returns and, then, where a correction is warranted, lodge an amendment to recover any difference.

Capital Gains Tax on Sale

Capital Gains Tax on Sale If you’ve sold, or are planning to sell, an investment property,

we calculate the CGT position in advance so there are no surprises, and help you organise a clearance certificate to avoid unnecessary withholding at settlement.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Investment Property Tax Return - FAQ

Do I need to declare rental income if my property was only rented for part of the year?

Yes. Any income earned from the property during the year must be declared, and expenses are generally apportioned to match the period it was rented or genuinely available for rent.

Can I claim travel costs to inspect my rental property?

No. Since 1 July 2017, individual investors can no longer claim travel expenses for inspecting, maintaining, or collecting rent from a residential rental property.

What's the difference between a repair and an improvement for tax purposes?

A repair restores something to its original condition and is generally deductible immediately. An improvement makes the property better than before, or replaces an entire asset, and is depreciated over time or added to your cost base instead.

Do I need a depreciation schedule?

It’s not compulsory, but for most investors it significantly increases the deductions claimed, particularly capital works deductions on newer properties. We can point you toward a quantity surveyor if you don’t already have one.

What happens if I sell my investment property partway through the year?

The capital gain or loss is calculated based on the contract date, not settlement, and needs to be included in your tax return for that financial year. From 1 January 2025, you’ll also need a clearance certificate from the ATO before settlement to avoid 15% being withheld automatically.

Can AMA Accountants help if I own multiple investment properties?

We prepare rental schedules for investors with single properties through to larger portfolios, including co-owned properties and properties held in different structures.

Book Your Investment Property Tax Return Appointment Today

Join property investors across Australia who trust AMA Accountants to manage their rental property tax returns, identify legitimate deductions, and keep their returns accurate and ATO-compliant.

Whether you own one investment property or a growing portfolio, our experienced tax professionals make the process straightforward, from preparing your rental property schedule through to final lodgement.

With CPA-certified professionals, ATO-registered tax agents, and transparent pricing with no hidden fees, you can have confidence that your investment property tax return is being handled carefully.