What you must declare
You must declare all the income you receive for your rental property (including from overseas properties) in your tax return. These include:
- short-term rentals
- renting your property through a sharing platform
- renting part or all of your home
- formal and domestic arrangements where you rent out to family and friends at less than commercial (or market) rates.
Types of rental income
Rental income can be payments you receive in cash or in the form of goods and services. You need to work out the monetary value of any payments you receive in the form of goods and services.
Rental income is payment for rent from your tenant. These are paid to either you, your agent or a property manager.
Payments relating to your rental income may include:
- bond money you retain in place of rent or keep because of damage to the property
- letting and booking fees you retain when renters or holiday makers cancel a booking
- insurance payouts, such as
- damage from a natural disaster (such as a bushfire, flood or cyclone)
- damage from an unexpected event (such as a burst sewage pipe)
- for the loss of rent
- money you receive from a relief fund in a disaster
- payments for deductible expenses, such as
- payments from a tenant to cover the cost of repairing property damage
- government rebates for buying a depreciating asset (for example, a solar hot water system)
- lump sum payments of rental income
- any assessable amounts relating to limited recourse debt arrangements involving your rental property.
For more information, see IT 2167 Income tax: rental properties – non-economic rental, holiday home, share of residence, etc. cases, family trust cases.
Domestic arrangements
Where you receive payment from family members in the form of 'board and lodging', your arrangement is of a domestic nature. This means you don't declare the rent as income and you can't claim expenses.
However, if you rent out your property to relatives or friends, you need to work out whether the arrangements are:
- consistent with normal commercial practices in the area
- less than commercial rent.
If the arrangement is consistent with normal commercial practices, we treat you the same as any other owner in a comparable arms-length situation. If the property is rented out at less than commercial rent, other considerations arise and your claim for expenses may only be allowed up to the amount of rent you received.
For more information, see IT 2167 Income tax: rental properties – non-economic rental, holiday home, share of residence, etc. cases, family trust cases.
Rental income and completing your tax return
You must declare rental income and related payments in your tax return in the year your tenant pays rent. If your tenant pays rent to your agent or property manager, declare rental income in the year your tenant pays them, not when it's transferred to you.
You need to declare rental income based on your legal ownership of the property. For example, if you own 50% of a property you must declare 50% of the rental income in your tax return.
Example: reporting rental income
Stephanie and Patrick own a unit as tenants in common in equal shares (50% each). They have rented the property for the full year, via a property manager. The property manager takes care of routine maintenance and deducts the expenses and property management fees from the rental income the tenant pays. The balance is then paid into Stephanie and Patrick's bank account.
The tenant gives notice that they will be moving out and directs the property manager to use their bond to pay the final month's rent. The bond is released to the property manager on 30 June 2025. The income isn't paid into Stephanie and Patrick's account until 4 July 2025.
When Stephanie and Patrick are preparing their tax return, they need to ensure they:
- report the gross rent they earn, before it's reduced by property management fees and any expenses paid on their behalf by the property manager
- include the bond money retained for the final month's rent in their 2025 tax return, as that's the year it was received by the property manager
- report their income and expenses according to their legal ownership (50% each).
Where to report
Include amounts that you earn:
- in Australia at 'You had Australian interest, or other Australian income or losses from investments or property'
- from overseas property at 'Other foreign income'.
You can claim a foreign income tax offset for the tax you pay on your rental income in another country.
There are also special rules that apply to the deductibility of rental expenses that you can claim against your foreign rental income.
Watch: How to include rental income and expenses in myTax
Media: How to include rental income and expenses in myTax
https://tv.ato.gov.au/ato-tv/media?v=bd1bdiubtjsfhwExternal Link (Duration: 01:56)