As a person or business owner, it’s important to know how taxes work and how they can affect how you plan your finances. People often want to know if the fees they pay are financial planning fees tax deductible. The answer is it depends.

There are times when you can remove the cost of financial planning from your taxes and times when you can’t. Whether or not you can financial planning fees tax deductible depends on whether the fees were paid to make money that can be taxed or to manage an investment.

When are Financial Planning Fees Tax Deductible?

Are financial planning fees tax deductible? it’s important to consider whether the fees were paid for the purpose of earning taxable income. This includes fees paid to financial planners for making a financial plan, preparing tax returns, or giving investment help. If the fees are directly connected to making money that can be taxed, they are fully deductible.

When fees for financial planning are used to manage a property, they can also be deducted from your taxes. For example, if you pay a financial planner to handle your stock portfolio or rental property, the fees are tax-deductible.

Here are a few examples (which do not involve financial advice fees but will help explain the point):

• Personal contributions to super are usually not tax deductible because they are seen as private spending. However, if you meet certain rules, you may be able to deduct some of these donations.
• The costs of getting pension income from a super fund can’t be written off on your taxes because pension income isn’t taxed.

So, what does this mean for fees for financial advice? Well, let’s look at some different kinds of fees.

Setting-up an Investment Portfolio or a Financial Plan

This is a cost of capital, so you can’t write it off on your taxes. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) put out a Tax Determination (TD 95/60) on this issue all the way back in 1995. It said that making investments doesn’t have enough to do with making money from those investments. In the same group are also the costs of making a money plan.

You can also read what is tax deductible

Existing Investment Portfolio – Management and Retainer Fees

Financial advisor fee for service of an existing investment portfolio is allowed as a tax deduction. But for the fees to be fully deductible, they must have to do with making money. This means that only a part of the fees will be deductible if the advice is about things that don’t bring in money, such as insurance premiums, the management of pension assets, or private loans.

You might sometimes be told to change the mix of things you have. If this is part of how you manage your money, then you can write off these costs. But if the costs are for putting together an investment plan, they can’t be deducted.

Investment Loan Arranging Fee

This is a cost of borrowing money, and you can deduct it from your taxes over the shorter of five years or the length of the loan. But this loan has to be used to make money, which means it will be taxed.

Cash Flow Management and Other Issues

If any advisory fees deductible has to do with managing cash flow or other things (like insurance needs), this doesn’t have anything to do with making taxable income and isn’t tax deductible.

Commissions

Since you didn’t pay for these directly, you can’t write them off on your taxes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the financial planner fees tax deductible depends on whether the fees were incurred in producing assessable income or managing an investment. If the fees are for either of these things, they can be deducted from your taxes. But they are not tax-deductible if they have nothing to do with making taxable money or managing an investment. Always it’s important to get professional help from a tax expert to make sure you’re following all the tax laws and rules. If you know “are financial planning fees tax deductible” whether or not you can make decisions that will help you reach your financial goals.