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James Coyle
James has over 35 years experience in financial services with particular expertise in two of the key components of retirement finance - Superannuation and the Age Pension. He is passionate about providing the guidance and support that can help older Australians enjoy their best possible retirement. He lives in regional Victoria surrounded by dogs and chooks.
Good suggestion
Very helpful info and will apply it and share this email with others. Many thanks and awesome work. Appreciated and thanks..
If I am single and I own an investment property (as well as my principal residence)
What do i declare?
1. is it the market value that I declare or
2.
the amount I would owe if I sold it.
Example
$500,000 mortgage
Property worth $700,000
Which figure is put forward.
Hi Florence, in the scenario you have mentioned, the value your investment property is assessed at depends on if the mortgage is secured against the investment property itself or another property. If the mortgage is secured against the investment property itself then you take the value of the mortgage off the value of the property and the remaining amount is what counts as your asset. So in your scenario $700K property minus $500K mortgage = $200K asset value. If however, the mortgage is secured against your primary residence then Centrelink will not deduct it’s value from the investment property and therefore the full $700K would count as your asset.
Great work olds,very clear and helpful
Great work ,very clear and helpful
Is defined benefit pension part of asset test or income test?
Hi Azra, thanks for reaching out for further clarity! Defined Benefits are counted as income, not assets.
Good advice about depreciating personal assets annually, would never have thought to do that, but I will remember to do it.
Since I’ll be retired, I’ll have time to do it and it will be worth it.
Hi, How accurate is the My Gov pension calculator? I have double checked all my
details with Centrelink but when I submit my details on reporting days it is always
aprox. $60 less than when I put the same details into their pension calculator.This
has been occurring for about 18months.Thanks Lesley
Hi Lesley, we can’t comment on the accuracy of any calculators other then our own however if you are seeing a difference it would be good to call Centrelink on 132 300 and request they post you a breakdown of all the income/assets they have on file for you and the corresponding values. Centrelink may have outdated values for some of your income/assets which are impacting the amount of pension you receive.
Hi Steven,Thanks for getting back.Have Already done that with Centrelink.
Have agreed on everything on file.The only thing they won’t say is why their
My Gov pension calculator shows a different amount to the amount I get on
reporting days. Approx. $60.00.If its not reasonably accurate, get rid of it
online surely. Who in Centrelink would I have to contact to resolve this? Thanks
Lesley
Hi Lesley, great to hear you have been proactively trying to resolve the matter! I’m unable to help regarding the calculator you are using except to say that perhaps some of the necessary questions were deemed too tricky, so to avoid misunderstandings and to provide a better user experience, some things may be presumed which then impacts the accuracy.
I have an investment property with a mortgage. How do I ascertain the value for centerlink purposes? How does this change over time?
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment! The key thing is whether the mortgage is secured against the investment property itself or another property such as your primary residence. If the mortgage is secured against the investment property itself then you take the value of the mortgage off the value of the property and the balance is what Centrelink will assess as your asset. If the mortgage is secured against another property then there is no offset and the full value of your investment property is assessed as an asset.
Will the sale of a non deemed asset such as a caravan affect the pension. Should the sale be reported to Centrelink?
HI David, thanks for seeking clarity! The sale of a non-deemed asset is unlikely to affect your pension as presumably it would be sold for the market value which is what has been declared to Centrelink, ergo you would no longer have a $50K caravan as an asset but you would have $50K in the bank instead. If there is a discrepancy between the value Centrelink has the asset listed for vs what it gets sold for then yes your pension may change. Regarding notifying Centrelink, yes you should update Centrelink if you dispose of any assets. It’s also a good idea to update them on the balances of your other financial assets such as bank accounts to ensure you are getting the correct pension.