Legal owners and tax settings

It is anyone or anything named on a title, a loan contract, a payslip or a bill. Add legal owner, on Legal owners or Setup, asks for these.

• Type: Person, Company, Trust or Self-managed super fund (SMSF). It cannot change once you save.
• Name: the name the owner is recorded under. A fund's field is called Fund name instead.
• Age, for a person: their age today. It goes up by one each year on the day you saved it.
• No HELP debt, for a person who has never owed a HELP study loan.

The Mitchells, an example household we use to explain, have five legal owners. Daniel and Emma are people. Mitchell Holdings Pty Ltd is a company, the Mitchell Family Trust is a trust, and the Mitchell Super Fund is an SMSF.

A self-managed super fund is its own legal owner. Record the fund's property, cash, shares and loans under the fund. A member's retail or industry super account stays with that person. The fund's members, contributions and expenses go in its SMSF records.

Ownership is recorded on each record, not on the owner. Each kind of record asks in its own way.

• A property or an other asset has Legal ownership. It is a list of periods. Each period has a Starts date, an Ends date once it ends, and Ownership shares that add up to exactly 100%. Split equally divides the shares evenly.
• A super account has one Account holder.
• A loan records its Borrowers, who pays it and who claims its interest, each on its own.
• Income names who it is received by, and a living expense who pays it.

When the portfolio has only one legal owner, each form says that owner holds 100%. The Mitchells' home is Daniel Mitchell 50%, Emma Mitchell 50%. The Armadale house is held by Daniel alone.

What a company, trust or fund owns stays with it. It never counts as a person's own, even when that person runs it.

Tax settings are the answers a tax estimate needs that no other record holds. You record them for each financial year, written like 2026-27 for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.

A choice holds from its year until a later year replaces it. An amount counts in its own year only. So a person recorded as an Australian resident from 2024-25 stays one in every later year, until a later year's setting says otherwise.

The fields depend on the type of owner.

• A person: Tax residency, Eligible for CGT indexation? and the CGT minimum-tax rule. Then five amounts no other record holds: Other taxable income, Reportable fringe benefits, Additional reportable super contributions, Exempt foreign employment income and Assessable FHSS release, which is First Home Super Saver money taken out of super.
• A company: Other taxable income, Use carried losses? and Company tax rate.
• A trust: Other taxable income, Use carried losses?, the Rental-loss rule, Eligible for CGT indexation? and Beneficiary shares.
• A fund: Use carried losses?, Tax compliance status, Non-arm's-length income recorded?, Other taxable income and Exempt current pension income.

The two CGT questions matter for a sale from 1 July 2027, when cost base indexation and a 30% minimum tax replace the 50% discount for people and trusts. Indexation and the 30% minimum tax explains the change. The Rental-loss rule matters from 2027-28, when a rental loss on a dwelling bought under a contract from 7:30 pm (ACT time) on 12 May 2026 no longer lowers other income, unless it is a new dwelling. A trust's Rental-loss rule asks whether that rule applies to it. A widely held unit trust is exempt.

Beneficiary shares say how a trust's income is split. They add up to 100%, or are all left at 0%. The Mitchell Family Trust's shares are Daniel 50% and Emma 50%.

Company tax rate is General rate · 30% or Base rate · 25%. The field's help says when 25% applies, and to use 30% for a property or investment company unless 25% is confirmed. Mitchell Holdings uses General rate · 30%.

When you do not know an answer, choose Not sure. The results that need it then show as unavailable, with the reason, rather than resting on a guess. A fund's compliance and non-arm's-length answers have no Not sure.

Carried balances are tax amounts that carry from one year into the next. Each has an As at date, and applies from that date until a later one replaces it.

• HELP debt, for a person: the study loan still owed.
• Carried tax loss: an ordinary tax loss to carry forward.
• Capital loss: a loss to set against future capital gains.
• Residential rental loss: a rental loss that can only lower rental income and residential capital gains.
• Franking account, for a company: its franking credit balance.

Record a zero balance too. A zero tells the estimate there is nothing to carry, where a gap leaves it unsure. Tick No HELP debt for a person who has never had one, so no HELP balance is needed at all.

Emma's page lists six HELP debt balances, one at each 30 June from 2021 to 2026. The newest is $17,300 at 30 June 2026, and the estimate starts from it.

The Tax settings page holds one owner's settings and balances on one form. You reach it from What to record, on Setup, Legal owners or the owner's page. The links read Record tax settings, Record tax balances or Record HELP debt balance. Legal owner, in the page's header, switches to another owner.

1. Add tax setting adds a year. Choose its Financial year, answer each question, and fill in any amounts. Remove tax setting takes a year away.
2. As at is the date for the balances you add. It starts at 1 July of the current financial year. Keep it if your records show the balances on that date, or change it.
3. Add balance, under each kind of balance, adds an Amount and its As at date. Adding one on a date already recorded corrects it.
4. Where a balance has nothing recorded, a box asks you to confirm it is $0. For a new person it reads I confirm HELP debt, Carried tax loss, Capital loss and Residential rental loss are $0 as at 1 July 2026. Ticking it records each one as $0.
5. Save tax settings saves them all.

Opened from a What to record link, saving takes you back to the page the link was on. Opened with no owner chosen, it says Emma Mitchell's tax settings were saved, for example, and moves on to the next owner you have not saved yet. After the last one it opens Setup.

The same settings are under Tax settings on Edit legal owner. Record balance, on the owner's page, adds one dated balance. A saved balance cannot be edited. Record a new one on the same As at date to correct it. Balances on other dates are kept.

Structure funding is money a person puts into a company or trust on a schedule and never gets back. It is neither taxed nor deductible. Record it under Structure funding on the company's or trust's edit form.

• Funder: the person giving the money.
• Name: a clear name for the schedule.
• Amount and Frequency: how much goes in, and how often.
• Starts and Ends: the first and last day. Leave Ends blank while it continues.

Add a person as a legal owner first, as only a person can be a funder. Money lent by a related party is not funding. Record it as a loan instead.

Legal owners opens on Legal owner position. It has three figures for the whole household: Owned assets, Debt legally owed and Net position, before tax and selling costs. As at 4 October 2026 the Mitchells' read $7,574,439, $1,559,696 and $6,014,743. Net position by legal owner draws each owner's net position as a bar, on one dollar scale.

Legal owner records lists each owner as a card. It shows their Monthly cashflow, Owned assets, Debt legally owed and Net position, with Edit. A fund's card says Fund assets and Fund debt and links to SMSF records.

An owner's own page has these parts, from the top.

• Position: the same three figures for this owner, with Asset mix. Asset mix groups their share of each asset into Property, Super, Cash and Other investments.
• Access to wealth, for a person: When it can be reached splits what they own into Accessible now and Preserved super, and Held by a company or trust where they have it. Accessible now is held in their own name outside super. It counts property, even though reaching it means selling. What you can reach, and when explains why it matters.
• Holdings and debt: each asset with this owner's Legal ownership and Value owned, and each loan with the Balance legally owed and Monthly paid.
• Monthly cashflow: Cash received, Cash paid and the difference, as an average month of this financial year. Pay counts after the tax and HELP withheld. Cash flow and forecast explains it in full.
• Tax: the Annual tax settlement, the Tax settings and the dated balances.
• Structure funding, for a company or trust that has some.

A fund's page says Fund position and Fund holdings and debt, and has Add property and Add other asset, which open forms with the fund already chosen.

Owned assets adds up the value owned of each asset. Each one is the asset's newest value times this owner's share. Debt legally owed adds up each loan's balance times their share as a borrower, plus any HELP debt. Net position takes the debt from the assets.

Daniel holds half the Mitchell home. Its value on 30 September 2026 is $2,310,000, so his value owned is $1,155,000. He borrowed half the home loan, whose balance is $445,000, so he owes $222,500 of it. With the rest of his holdings and the Armadale loan, his position as at 4 October 2026 is this.

Of his $2,667,095, Preserved super is $635,714, his super account. The other $2,031,381 is Accessible now. Select a figure on the page to see these steps and the records behind them.

It is what an owner can expect to pay or get back after 30 June. It takes the year's estimated income tax and HELP repayment, then takes off what was withheld from pay and already paid. It is an estimate, not an ATO assessment, and it stays out of monthly cashflow.

Here is Emma's for 2026-27, as her page shows it.

Estimated income tax starts with Add up the income taxed in the year, less what is deductible. For Emma that is her pay, her rent, her share of the trust's income, less her property costs, loan interest and depreciation. Her taxable income is $127,760. The next steps apply the year's rates, offsets and the Medicare levy. The working shows each rate it used.

Estimated HELP repayment adds her net investment loss, $17,302, back to that income. It then indexes her $17,300 balance on 1 June 2027 and applies the repayment rate. Withheld and already paid is $44,094. That is $1,054 more than the two estimates together, so the settlement is a $1,054 refund.

The last line compares two estimates. Without her rentals, Emma's tax and HELP would be $47,790. With them it is $43,040, so her rentals lower her tax and HELP by $4,750. For Daniel the same line reads Rentals add to tax and HELP, $2,365, as his rent is more than its costs and interest.

The Mitchell Family Trust's own estimate is $0. With beneficiary shares of 50% each, its income shows in Daniel's and Emma's tax instead, as Mitchell Family Trust's income, $2,663 each.

Edit legal owner, on the owner's page or card, changes the name, age, No HELP debt and the tax settings. Save legal owner keeps the change. The type stays as it was saved.

Delete legal owner, at the foot of the form, is refused while any record still names the owner. The message names those records, for example Armadale house, Armadale loan still use this record. Change that first. Move them to another owner, or delete them, then try again.

A figure that cannot be worked out is never shown as $0. The page says why instead.

• No legal owner position yet means no owner holds or owes anything yet. Record what each one owns and owes.
• Monthly cashflow needs more records lists each record the month is waiting on, with a link to fix it.
• Annual tax settlement unavailable says what the estimate needs. It may be tax settings for the year, a dated balance, or an answer left at Not sure.
• A result for a year with no tax settings says This year has no tax settings, so it shows cash without tax.