Hemisphere Accounting

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A boutique accounting practice in Sydney & London giving you personalised service and helping you bring your business into balance

Offering a tailor-made accounting service to small and medium sized businesses

22/10/2026

You buy a property with plans to make it your home. Just not yet.

Perhaps you need to finish a work contract elsewhere. Perhaps renting it out would help cover the mortgage.

Before you decide, check the capital gains tax position.

🛑 Renting a property before you first establish it as your home can leave part of a future gain taxable. That is different from moving out and renting a property you have already genuinely lived in, where other concessions may be available.

The order of events matters.

A rental arrangement that helps with costs today may affect the tax calculation when you sell.

Talk it through before the lease is signed. “We always intended to live there” is not the whole tax test.

20/10/2026

Bought your home before 12 May 2026, then moved out and rented it?

Your position may be stronger than you think.

Losses on that property can still be offset against your salary, as they always could. The absence rule can also keep the CGT main residence exemption in place.

Three limits to know:

The grandfathering applies only while you own the property
It does not pass to a buyer
It does not cover the next property you buy

Also, you can only have one main residence at a time. Buy another home and treat it as your main residence, and the absence rule on the first one stops.

The full details are in Geraldene's article:
https://buff.ly/2hAmXV0

14/10/2026

Found your next home before selling the current one?

There is a capital gains tax concession that may allow both properties to be treated as your main residence for an overlap of up to six months.

Useful, yes. Automatic, no.

Conditions apply, including how you used your existing home before selling it. The timing of the sale and any rental use also need to be considered.

Do not assume that settling both transactions within six months is the only box to tick.

Before committing to the move, check how the concession applies to your circumstances.

Moving house comes with enough unwelcome surprises. The tax position is one you can investigate in advance.

DM for a confidential chat.

12/10/2026

Buying a property to live in does not automatically make the entire ownership period exempt from capital gains tax.

When you actually move in matters.

There is a concession where you cannot move in immediately and do so as soon as reasonably practicable. But “we could not move in” and “it was more convenient to wait” are not necessarily the same thing.

Buying with a tenant already in place can also affect the position. Your intention to make it your home does not, on its own, settle the tax question.

Before buying, talk through when you expect to move in and what will happen to the property in the meantime.

It is a much easier conversation before the arrangements are made than when you eventually sell.

05/10/2026

Moved out of your home and rented it out?

Many people assume the CGT exemption is gone. Usually it is not.

Under the absence rule, you can rent your home out for up to six years and still treat it as your main residence. Sell or move back within that window and there is generally no CGT on the sale.

Go past six years and only part of the gain is taxed. That gain is worked out from the market value on the day you first rented it out, not what you paid for it.

If you have moved for work, a partner, or a move interstate or overseas, know your dates.

Geraldene has written up how this works under the new rules. Read it here:
https://buff.ly/2hAmXV0

02/10/2026

The UK mansion tax, a new annual council tax surcharge on high-value residential properties, is confirmed from April 2028.

What is not yet confirmed is the threshold.

Currently set at £2 million, there is credible speculation that the Autumn Budget on 28 October will lower it to £1.5 million. That single change would pull a significantly larger number of properties into charge, including many that owners do not consider particularly high value given where London and South East prices have moved.

The confirmed surcharge is up to £7,500 per year. At £1.5 million the same surcharge would apply to a much broader pool of properties.

For Australian clients holding UK residential property at or above these values, this is a holding cost that does not currently exist and will, from April 2028, potentially at a lower threshold than first announced.

The Autumn Budget on 28 October will clarify the position. We will share the details as soon as it lands.

01/10/2026

If your UK rental income exceeds £50,000 and you entered the Making Tax Digital regime from April 2026, your second quarterly submission to HMRC is due 7 November 2026.

The quarterly deadlines under MTD are:

Q1: 7 August
Q2: 7 November
Q3: 7 February
Q4: 7 May

After the four quarterly updates, an End of Period Statement is required, followed by a Final Declaration by 31 January.

MTD changes how you report to HMRC, not when you pay. The payment deadline remains unchanged. But the reporting obligation is now ongoing, not annual, and penalties apply for missed submissions.

For Australian clients managing UK property from here, this requires a UK tax agent with MTD-compliant software handling your quarterly submissions. If that is not in place, 7 November is a deadline you may already be approaching without realising it.

If you are unsure whether MTD applies to you or whether your current arrangements are compliant, reach out.

https://buff.ly/rq8FJSG

30/09/2026

Regardless of what the UK Autumn Budget announces on 28 October, one change is already locked in for UK landlords.

From April 2027, rental income will be taxed at separate, higher rates than employment or trading income:

Basic rate: 22%
Higher rate: 42%
Additional rate: 47%

For the first time, rental profits will be taxed more heavily than wages at every bracket.

Combined with Section 24, which already restricts mortgage interest deductibility to a 20% basic rate credit for individual landlords, the effective tax rate on leveraged UK rental property will continue to rise.

For Australian clients with UK rental income, this change affects your net yield from April 2027 and needs to be factored into forward planning now, not next year.

If you have not reviewed your UK property income position with these rates in mind, it is worth doing before the end of 2026.

https://buff.ly/XIvwgsA

28/09/2026

September to December is one of the most useful planning windows of the year.

You are far enough into the financial year to know how your income, deductions, and investment performance are tracking. And you are early enough to do something about it before 30 June 2027.

For individuals and investors, the questions worth asking right now:

✔️ Is your income this year higher or lower than expected and does that affect when you should realise a capital gain?
✔️ Have you reviewed your super contributions against the $32,500 concessional cap and used any available carry forward amounts?
✔️ If you hold assets with significant unrealised gains, have you thought about the 1 July 2027 valuation and what it means for your planning?
✔️ If you have a family trust, have you started thinking about the 2028 changes and what they mean for your distribution strategy?

For business owners, the questions are different but equally timely:

✔️ Is your BAS and payroll reconciling cleanly under Payday Super?
✔️ Have you reviewed your instant asset write-off position for the year?
✔️ Is your ATO debt position under control given that GIC interest is no longer deductible?

None of these require urgent action today. But leaving them until May or June means fewer options and less time.

If you want to work through any of these with us, reach out now.

https://www.hemisphereaccounting.com/

24/09/2026

If your SMSF prepares its own annual return, the lodgement deadline for the 2025-26 financial year is 31 October 2026.

If you lodge through a tax agent, the deadline extends to 28 February 2027, provided you are properly linked to your agent.

Given everything that changed in 2025-26 for SMSFs, this year's return is more important than most:

✅ The LRBA residential property ban took effect on 10 August 2026. If your fund entered into a residential LRBA during the year, the timing and documentation of that arrangement needs to be correct.

✅ Division 296 applies from 1 July 2026 for balances above $3 million.

✅ Payday super obligations changed from 1 July 2026 if your fund employs anyone.

If your SMSF had any of these issues in 2025-26 and you are self-preparing, it may be worth getting professional eyes on the return before you lodge.

https://www.hemisphereaccounting.com/

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Pymble, NSW
2073

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Website

http://www.hemisphereaccounting.com/

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