Australian Property Experts
Answer six questions and see which structure leaves you the most, after land tax in your state, tax on the rent, and capital gains tax under the rules that start on 1 July 2027.
General information only, not tax advice. Every assumption is visible and editable, and there is a list at the bottom of what this does not model.
Land tax uses published rates for the 2026 year and assumes every property sits in the one entity, so land values are added together. Revenue offices can group related companies and trusts, which pushes the bill higher than shown. NSW assesses on a three year average land value, so a real NSW bill lags these figures while values are rising. In South Australia a trust that notifies its beneficial interests to RevenueSA is assessed at general rates rather than trust rates.
Every line below is worked out by running your portfolio again with one thing changed.
Land tax is set by the state, so the same money can want a different structure depending on where you buy.
Net worth from the portfolio after all tax, if you sold in that year. Cash spent covering shortfalls along the way is counted, so the line can start below zero.
Structures are often sold on the idea that debt held in a company or trust sits outside your own borrowing position. In practice the guarantee brings it back. Some lenders do treat guaranteed entity debt more favourably than personal debt, and a small number of commercial and non-bank lenders will assess a deal mainly on the property's own income, which is where the idea comes from. Those are exceptions rather than the rule, and they usually cost more in rate and fees.
There are also two effects that push the other way. Fewer lenders write trust and company loans, so your choice narrows at exactly the point you want competition. And a negatively geared property in your own name produces a personal tax refund that many lenders add back when working out what you can service, which a structure does not give you.
Worth deciding the structure on tax, asset protection and estate planning, then talking to a broker about what each option does to your capacity before you commit. This calculator does not model serviceability, because it varies too much between lenders to put a number on.
The numbers above cover tax on rental profit, land tax, quarantined rental losses, and capital gains tax on sale. Plenty of things that decide the real answer are not in here:
We buy investment property for clients across Australia and work alongside your accountant on how it is held. Start with a conversation about what you are trying to build.
Talk to usThere is no single answer, which is why this page compares the numbers rather than picking for you. The three things that usually decide it are land tax, what happens to rental losses, and what the eventual capital gain is taxed at. A family trust pays land tax from the first dollar in NSW while an individual gets a $1,075,000 threshold, so a NSW portfolio can cost a trust thousands more every year. A trust can split income between beneficiaries, which an individual cannot. Both keep the capital gains discount and the new indexation from 1 July 2027. Your own numbers decide which of those matters most.
Usually not, and this is the most common misunderstanding about structures. Lenders almost always require a personal guarantee from the people behind the company or trust, and once you have guaranteed the loan most lenders assess that debt against you personally anyway. Buying in a structure also tends to reduce borrowing capacity rather than increase it, because fewer lenders write those loans, rates can be higher, and a negatively geared property held in a structure does not produce the personal tax refund that helps your own serviceability. Treat the structure decision as a tax and asset protection question, not a borrowing capacity trick.
The usual reason is deferral. A company pays a flat 30% on rental profit and can keep the rest, so a high income earner does not pay the top marginal rate on that profit in the year it is earned. The catch is the capital gain. Companies get no capital gains discount today and are excluded from the cost base indexation starting 1 July 2027, so the company pays 30% on the full nominal gain including the part that is only inflation. When the money is eventually paid out as a franked dividend you top up to your marginal rate anyway. A company defers tax on rental profit and gives up relief on capital growth.
Yes. The reform starting 1 July 2027 replaces the 50% discount with cost base indexation plus a 30% minimum tax, and it applies to Australian resident individuals and trusts. Companies, super funds and life insurance companies are excluded and keep their existing settings, which for a company means no discount at all. Growth before 1 July 2027 keeps the 50% discount for individuals and trusts through the transition split.
It models tax on rental profit, land tax by state, quarantined rental losses, and capital gains tax on sale. It does not model asset protection, estate planning, Division 7A loans if you draw money out of a company, foreign purchaser surcharges, the cost of setting up and running a structure, your lender's policy, or self managed super funds. Those often decide the answer in practice, so the numbers here are a starting point for a conversation with your accountant rather than a conclusion.
Most comparisons of company against trust against personal name stop at the headline tax rate. That misses the two costs that usually decide the outcome for residential property: land tax, which is charged every year whether the property makes money or not, and capital gains tax, which lands once but lands hard.
In New South Wales an individual gets a land tax threshold of $1,075,000 before paying anything. A discretionary trust gets no threshold at all and pays 1.6% from the first dollar of land value. On a portfolio with $1.5 million of land the trust pays $24,000 and the individual pays $6,900, so the trust is $17,100 a year worse off before a single dollar of capital gain is counted. That gap holds every year you own the properties. Queensland runs the other way for companies, taxing them from $350,000 while individuals get $600,000. Victoria adds a trust surcharge on land between $25,000 and $1.8 million. Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT apply the same rates to all three, and the Northern Territory has no land tax at all.
From 1 July 2027 the 50% capital gains discount is replaced with cost base indexation and a 30% minimum tax. That reform applies to Australian resident individuals and trusts. Companies and super funds are excluded and keep their existing settings, and a company has never had a capital gains discount. The practical result is that an individual or trust holding property for twenty years pays tax only on growth above inflation, while a company pays 30% on the whole nominal gain, including the part that is inflation. The longer the hold and the higher the inflation, the worse that gets for a company.
The old argument for buying in your own name was that a rental loss reduced the tax on your salary, something a trust or company could never do. From 1 July 2027 rental losses on established property bought after 7.30pm on 12 May 2026 are quarantined for individuals too. They carry forward against future rental income or the gain on sale instead of cutting your salary tax today. That removes much of the advantage personal ownership used to hold, and shifts the decision onto land tax, income splitting and the eventual capital gain.
A company earns its place when rental profit is large, your personal income is already at the top rate, and you genuinely do not need the money in your own hands for a long time. Paying 30% instead of 47% on profit you leave inside the company is real money, and it compounds. It stops being a win the moment you want that money personally, because the franked dividend tops you up to your marginal rate, and it can be swamped entirely by the capital gains treatment on a long hold. Switch the company profits assumption above to see both sides of that.