Noel Whittaker's Blog
By Noel Whittaker
Australia’s love affair with residential real estate appears to be going through a rocky patch. Just two years ago we were being treated to salacious headlines such as “Nice earners, no sweat” with the body copy screaming that our home was making us over $700 a day tax-free. The acronym that was all the rage …
Expect the “retirees tax” to receive plenty of publicity as the federal election draws near. I have written about it extensively, but as a reader points out there is one group who will suffer badly. Mary is 70, a widow, and who has had no superannuation. Apart from her home, $50,000 in the bank, and …
The Pension Loans Scheme (PLS) for retirees will be useful in certain circumstances. But, as a reader has just pointed out, it is not available to everybody. He has chosen to retire to a manufactured home which is situated on leasehold land. Because the land is leasehold, he has no title to the property, and …
This week brings good news for pensioners. On 20 March 2019, the maximum total pension rate for single pensioners will increase to $926.20 a fortnight or $24,081.20 a year. The maximum rate for pensioner couples combined will increase to $1,396.20 a fortnight or $36,301.20 a year. For cash strapped pensioners, some small casual work could …
There is still a lot of confusion about the difference between holding assets as tenants in common and holding them as joint tenants. In this context the term “tenants” doesn’t have a thing to do with landlord and tenant, it refers to ownership of assets such as property and shares. For example, if you buy …