Small business and general business tax break

Warning: This information may not apply to the current year. Check the content carefully to ensure it is applicable to your circumstances.

What can I buy?

The tax break is for 'new, tangible depreciating assets'. The asset has to be something physical, like plant and equipment, and it has to be new - meaning that it hasn't already been used anywhere, by anyone, for any purpose (except for reasonable testing and trialling).

You could buy:

cars, vans, trucks and other business vehicles
computer hardware (but not software)
tools
furniture
capital improvements to existing machinery and equipment.

You can buy sets of things which are meant to be used together (for example a base station and handsets as a two-way radio) and claim them as long as their total cost meets the minimum thresholds.

You can also buy identical things (for example 30 identical café chairs) or things that are substantially identical (for example 15 red café chairs and 15 blue café chairs of the same make).

If you need to improve some existing assets, such as buying a new engine for a harvester, you can do that too - but you can't claim the tax break for repairs.

These assets need to be used principally in Australia and principally for business.

You will find a more detailed explanation at:

Sections within Buying assets

Last Modified: Wednesday, 9 December 2009