Property Investing - Interest Capitalisation

Does anyone have experience with interest capitalisation strategy on investment mortgage loans? As context, my understanding of interest capitalisation in property investing is that you stop paying interest for a period of time and that interest amount gets added to your loan amount.

I.e. if you have a $100,000 loan at 3% pa, your monthly repayment would be 100000*0.03/12 = $250. If you do interest capitalisation for 6 months, it means you would stop paying interest for that 6 months (i.e. you save $1500), and the amount that you would have normally been required to pay ($250x6=$1500) then gets added added to your loan amount. I.e. loan becomes $101,500.

Your interest for this investment loan will then be 3%pa of $101,500 thereafter. I.e. Monthly repayment be 101500*0.03/12= $253.75. Would this whole amount be tax deductible as if it was a normal investment loan? If yes there may be certain tax benefits here. You could use the $1500 which you saved, and use it to pay off another owner occupied loan (which is non tax deductible). In essence you will be increasing a tax-deductible investment home loan and decreasing a non tax-deductible owner occupied loan. Even if you dont have a non tax deductible owner loan, the money you saved $1500 could just be sitting in an offset account mitigating the 253.75-250=3.75 additional interest you'll be paying anyway. So if my understanding is correct, worse case is you break even and no worse off since the money you saved would end up in offset account, offsetting the increased loan amount. Best case is you get to enjoy additional tax benefit.

The only downside is that since interest is compounded, your loan doesnt become $101,500. it becomes more like $101,509 but thats like $10 more. The other question is, would your accountant charge you more for this more complicated arrangement?

Calc:
Month Loan rate Monthly repay
1 100000.0 0.03 250.0
2 100250.0 0.03 250.6
3 100500.6 0.03 251.3
4 100751.9 0.03 251.9
5 101003.8 0.03 252.5
6 101256.3 0.03 253.1
7 101509.4 0.03 253.8

This is a good article that explains it: https://onproperty.com.au/what-interest-capitalisation-and-g…
but it gives a negative sentiment towards it mainly due to a lack of understanding but if theres anyone in the bargain community to knows it well and can share the ins and outs, it'll be much appreciated.

Comments

  • I've heard of interest only repayments but not interest deferral. What banks even do this?

    • This is quite common, most banks allow this, especially during pandemic. Interest capitalisation. quite a few articles on line. i dont think many people know about intereset capitalisation

  • +1

    https://www.bantacs.com.au/topics/property-investors/capital…

    So long as you have a legitimate* reason, it would probably be ok.

    *arguing legitimacy may be a little trickier

    • Not sure if this was the direct link from the ATO regarding such arrangements

      https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/print?DocID=TXD/TD20121/NAT/…

      From what I recall, essentially the ATO won't let OP deduct the capitalized interest charges, if OP takes the rental income and uses it for a personal use (like paying off their mortgage, and not the rental)

  • Lol

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