Should You Loan or Gift Your Children Money to Buy a House?

by Dominique Schuh

Investors spent most of Wednesday anxiously awaiting an address by US President Donald Trump, with shares trading listlessly sideways before finishing the day marginally in the red. Buying in the banks and modest interest in utilities were not enough to keep the ASX supported, with Telstra weighing heavily on the bourse as it traded ex-dividend. Wall Street indexes rallied on Wednesday, with the Dow hitting a record above 21,000 points, while the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields jumped as investors bet that a U.S. interest rate hike would come soon.

What this means for you:
If you're thinking you'd like to make a large contribution to superannuation, this is the financial year to do it in. Until the 30th June, the after-tax (non-concessional) contribution limit is $180,000 per person, and you can even contribute 3 years worth of that amount into super in one go, making it $540,000 on offer if you're under the age of 65. As of 1 July 2017, the non-concessional contribution amount will drop to $100,000 per person, meaning the 3 years bring forward amount will also drop to $300,000 per person.

Many people trying to break into the housing market are making use of parental help in the form of a deposit. We suggest any large amount of financial help given to your children is treated as a "loan" rather than a "gift", with something in writing to support this. The reason being – your son or daughter gets into a relationship breakdown, any "gifted" amount can potentially be up for grabs in a property settlement, whereas a "loan" will need to be repaid to the parents, with only other assets left behind being included in a settlement.