As many tenants and landlords turn their attention to their 2020-21 tax returns, one of the big questions is perhaps how they should treat rental concessions provided and received during the last financial year as a result of COVID-19. Tax treatment of these rental concessions depends on a variety of factors and are outlined below.

Tenants

For tenants the tax treatment of a rental waiver depends on whether it is related to a past or future occupancy. In relation to past occupancies, tenants that have already paid the incurred rent which was subsequently refunded will need to include this amount in their assessable income when it is received. In instances where the tenant has not paid the incurred rent which has been waived, the rent waiver will be considered to be debt forgiveness. The commercial debt forgiveness rules may apply in some instances.

If the rental waiver is in relation to a future period of occupancy, tenants will not be entitled to a deduction for the amount. Businesses will need to account for the reduced amount of rent paid, or if your business has already accounted for the original rent in your accounts, you’ll need to make appropriate adjustments in either the accounts or your tax return to ensure you don’t claim the waived amount as a tax deduction.

Tenants that have received a rental deferral will be entitled to a deduction for the deferred rent when it is incurred. Rent is generally incurred in the period that the rent relates to or when it is paid.

Landlords

The tax treatment of rental waivers for landlords depends on the accounting method used (ie cash or accruals accounting). For landlords that use cash accounting, rental waivers mean that you never collect the waived amount of rent and therefore you don’t have to pay any income tax on that amount.

For landlords that use the accruals accounting method, if the waived rent relates to past periods of occupancy and has already been included in your assessable income, you may be entitled to a deduction. If the rental waiver relates to future periods of occupancy, the assessable income that you account for should only include the reduced rent that you have agreed to receive and therefore cannot claim a deduction for the waived rent (which would relate to the future period of occupancy).

There’ll be no tax effects for landlords that give rental deferrals and uses the cash accounting method as the rent only becomes taxable when it is received. However, those that use the accruals accounting method will need to pay income tax on the accrued but deferred rent even if there is a change to the pattern of receiving the payments (ie rent not paid until a later date). In those circumstances, if you as a landlord have included the deferred rent in your assessable income, but do not later receive the accrued rent from your tenant, you may be able to claim a deduction for the amount.