I'd keep the property in your personal name because of stamp duty costs You could look at the lending and go for interest only to help with your taxes and unlock some equity. A good accountant and a loan broker who gets investors can give you the right advice here!
If you have a trading company, it can totally make sense to pay o ut profits as dividends through a discretionary trust and send them to a bucket company for investing. This way, you start with more money vs. paying in your personal name at a higher tax rate even if you end up with a slightly higher CGT later on.
Honestly, I think most people worry too much about CGT instead of focusing on investing with more cash from the start. All things being equal, you could end up hundreds of thousands ahead by paying a higher CGT rate later, rather than having your money shrink at the beginning due to higher income tax just to get a better CGT rate. And hey, you might never even sell anyway!
Other perks of a company? Multiple land tax thresholds! Set up another bucket company, and boom you get another threshold.
And probably the coolest underrated trick: you can drip feed fully franked dividends over a few tax years to really fine tune what you pay. This works great if the people getting the dividends are on a lower tax rate than the company rate, since the CGT paid on property becomes a tax credit against their other income. So, you still get an effectively lower CGT based on the gap between the 30% company tax and your actual income tax rate.
There are even fancier trust structures that let you negative gear the loan part in a trust while income goes to other beneficiaries these can be a game changer for higher earners.
Again, a solid accountant can definitely help you set things up for your specific situation!
