Stephen Knight

But let's talk about the negative gearing change as well.

And interestingly enough, if you own a property in Australia...

and you bought it, say, two years ago, you still get to use the old negative gearing rule.

So there's going to be a bit of a two-tiered system.

Now, Andrew, most listeners to this show aren't Australian property investors.

They might just be a Kiwi living in the great town of Harwerda, thinking about growing a property portfolio.

So why should Kiwis even listen to this?

And there was a really interesting example that we were just talking about this week about a Kiwi who's living in Australia, thinking about buying a property back over here.

And then they pulled the brakes on that purchase.

Walk us through what happened.

And the other thing that's quite fascinating is

even if they purchased a property in New Zealand, held it for a couple of years, then moved back to New Zealand, according to their tax accountant, that would be considered deemed disposal when they leave Australia, which basically means that when they decide to move back here, then the Australian tax department would say, well, that's as if, or we're going to treat it as if you've sold that property.

And you need to pay the capital gains tax as if you have sold the property, despite the fact that you have, in fact, not sold the property.

Well, in that case, you'd either have to borrow it, pay it in cash or sell the property.

Now, this is where it's very important that you actually check with an accountant because it does depend on the visa you're on.

Because my understanding is that exit tax situation likely doesn't apply to Kiwis on a special category visa, which is the standard New Zealand visa that most of us on are in Australia, which is considered a temporary visa.

But just check with an Australian accountant if you are purchasing a property

like in New Zealand and you're living over there, or you're making any sort of investments if you're living in Australia, because you don't want to invest thinking that you're not caught by these rules and then find out 10 years later that you actually are.

So I'm not sure the exact visa that couple were on, but the advice that they got was that these rules would apply to them.

Now, there might also be some lessons for Kiwis who are currently in New Zealand and are thinking about moving to Australia.