You must include rental bond money as income if you become entitled to retain it, for instance, because a tenant defaulted on the rent, or because of damage to your rental property requiring repairs or maintenance.
If you received an insurance payout, there may be situations where the payout needs to be included as income, for example, if you received an insurance payment to compensate you for lost rent.
If you received a letting or booking fee, you must include this as part of your rental income.
Associated payments include all amounts you receive, or become entitled to, as part of the normal, repetitive and recurrent activities through which you intend to generate profit from the use of your rental property.
If you received a reimbursement or recoupment for deductible expenditure, you may have to include an amount as income. For example, if you received:
- an amount from a tenant to cover the cost of repairing damage to some part of your rental property and you can claim a deduction for the cost of the repairs, you need to include the whole amount in your income
- a government rebate for the purchase of a depreciating asset, such as a solar hot-water system, you may need to include an amount in your income. For more information, see Taxation Determination TD 2006/31 Income tax: is a government rebate received by a rental property owner an assessable recoupment under subsection 20-20(3) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, where the owner is not carrying on a property rental business and receives the rebate for the purchase of a depreciating asset (for example, an energy saving appliance) for use in the rental property.
You must include as rental income any assessable amounts relating to limited recourse debt arrangements involving your rental property. For more information, see Limited recourse debt arrangements and see the Guide to depreciating assets 2015 (NAT 1996).