Tax Depreciation and Covid-19 Reports – Will Physical Inspections Be Required?

Tax Depreciation

Businesses and property investors will sometimes hire a professional quantity surveyor, who will put together an updated tax depreciation report. This will provide depreciation and capital works deductions for revenue-producing properties they own. These places may take the form of a factory, rental property, or office building.

Comprehensive property inspection by a professional quantity surveyor will be essential for this process. It will:

• identify possible deductions that are available as per tax law;
• offer precise valuations of building and plant works that qualify; and
• offer supporting documents of taxpayers’ claims pertaining to capital works and depreciation deductions. This will be required for ATO audits.

It has come to our attention that a number of quantity surveyors have been promoting reports about tax depreciation that don’t include physical property inspections because of coronavirus precautions.

For the most part, reports are offered, and they state an intent to conduct an inspection later on.
With that said, in several instances, no site inspection offers are made.

When a physical premises inspection isn’t conducted, the likelihood of missed or mistaken deductions increases. This could lead to expensive adjustments if taxpayers need to modify a tax return.

Note to the editor: if you need further information about the usage of reports about tax depreciation from quantity surveyors, kindly get in touch with our office.
Please be mindful of the following: most of this publication’s comments are quite general. Those who intend to apply this information to more practical situations are encouraged to seek professional guidance independently. They should have their interpretations verified before applying the information in this article to their own circumstances.

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