Cash Use Is Rising Again: The Rental Property Receipt Check Landlords Should Run
What the RBA Data Actually Says
The Reserve Bank's April 2026 bulletin says Australian cash use has stabilised after years of decline. Around 15% of payments by number were made in cash in 2025, compared with about 13% in 2022. Around half of Australians used cash in a typical week.
That does not mean Australia is going back to cash-first spending. It means cash still appears in small payments, backup money, family transfers, local services, and emergency situations. Rental property admin has plenty of those small messy moments.
| Signal | What changed | Landlord read |
|---|---|---|
| RBA Consumer Payments Survey | Cash payments were around 15% by number in 2025, compared with about 13% in 2022. | Cash is still part of everyday spending, especially for small payments and fallback use. |
| RBA hardship finding | Around one-third of Australians would face hardship or major inconvenience if cash were hard to access or not accepted. | The useful landlord lesson is resilience: keep a backup, but keep proof too. |
| Property owner pain point | Paying trades in cash without receipts means no deduction and weak audit defence. | Cash-paid repairs need a clearer paper trail than card payments, not less. |
The Deduction Risk Is the Missing Receipt
Lodgey's property-owner pain-point research flags a very specific problem: cash payments without receipts are hard to defend. Bank statements alone are often not enough because they show money moved, not what the job was, who did it, or whether it belonged to the rental.
Use this as the quick test before a receipt gets buried in a glovebox, text thread, or kitchen drawer.
Cash Does Not Decide Whether It Is a Repair
The payment method does not turn a capital improvement into an immediate repair deduction. A cash-paid plumber callout might be a repair. A cash-paid full bathroom replacement is still likely a capital works issue. The receipt needs to describe the work clearly enough for that distinction.
A Simple Cash Expense Workflow
The goal is not a complicated bookkeeping ritual. It is one repeatable motion: capture the receipt, label the property, explain the job, and match the payment before memory fades.
| Keep | Why | Good label |
|---|---|---|
| Receipt or invoice | Shows supplier, amount, date, and work performed. | Locksmith invoice - Brunswick rental - tenant lock issue |
| Payment note | Connects the cash amount to the job. | Cash withdrawal 12 Apr used for urgent key replacement |
| Property tag | Prevents mixed personal and rental records. | 12 Smith St, Unit 2 |
| Repair/improvement note | Helps avoid claiming capital work as an immediate repair. | Repaired existing pipe, no upgrade |
Use Lodgey to connect receipts, expenses, loan records, and property context before tax time turns small gaps into expensive guesses.
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