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From the first of July 1996, all financial assets and deprived assets are assessed under deeming. Deeming is a process where an amount of income is "deemed" to be received from a financial investment, regardless of the actual income you receive. If you invest money and achieve a rate of return higher than deeming rates, good for you. If you invest at less, you miss out on government pensions and allowances. You can't get past the income test by lending money to your family at below commercial interest rates, and thanks to deprivation you can't get past the assets test by giving big chunks of it away for free. A financial asset is any bank, building society, credit union account (or an account with any other institution), cash, term deposits, cash management trusts, managed investments, shares, bonds, debentures, bank bills, shares in unlisted companies, gold or other bullion, investments in super if you are over age pension age, an asset tested income stream.... anything of that ilk. One thing you will note as missing is direct real estate holdings, an income is not deemed from a property, the actual rental income (minus interest expenses if you are gearing) is taken into account. They also include deprived assets within the 5 year period.
For the latest deeming rates and thresholds, download Centrelink's Deeming Factsheet
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