Private ruling: Deductions- Storage
Published: September 2011
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2011
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2010

Ruling: Q1: Are you entitled to a deduction for the expenses you incurred relating to the storage of your personal belongings? | A1: No.


Relevant legislative provisions: Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 8-1.

Reasons for decision: Summary: Section 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 allows a deduction for all losses and outgoings to the extent to which they are incurred in gaining or producing assessable income, except where the outgoings are of a capital, private or domestic nature. In order to derive assessable income from your property, you chose to store your personal belongings at a cost. The removal of personal belongings from your property can be seen as simply a pre-requisite to the earning of assessable income from the property. That is, the storage expenses are not considered to be incurred in the course of earning rental income. Also, while your requirement for this storage may be seen to be an indirect consequence of the renting of your house, the expense remains private or domestic in nature. Accordingly you are not entitled to a deduction for the storage expenses.

Please check this edited version to be sure that there are no details remaining that you think may allow you to be identified. If you have any concerns about this ruling you wish to discuss, you will find our contact details in the fact sheet. | Relevant facts: You are an expatriate Australian citizen and are currently a non resident for tax purposes. | After leaving Australia you wanted to rent out your Australian home and needed to hire storage for personal belongings that were in your home. | You have incurred expenses relating to this storage.