I need to do underpinning for one of my rental properties (no huge rush). It's going to cost about 10-11K. (one side only). Can anyone chime into whether this cost can be classed as a repair or capital works?
We had a client once who had to do this. They were knocked back by the ATO when they tried to claim it as a repair. The damage had occurred while they were renting out the place, so that was fine. But the ATO logic was that what they were doing was introducing a new structure to the property i.e. a buried concrete pad. The ATO said that the new structure needed to be claimed at 2.5%pa. They did say he could claim some associated plaster and paint work inside as 'repairs'.
