The continuation of the instant asset write-off in the 2017 Budget has been welcomed by a number of community groups including NSW Farmers and the Gunnedah and District Chamber of Commerce.
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As a a small business owner and president of the chamber, Michael Broekman said the ability to immediately deduct assets up to $20,000 until June 30, 2018, is a positive.
“It helps to streamline the small purchases that you have within your business, whereas before we had to depreciate it over many years,” he said.
“The $20,000 means you can buy small items within your organisation when you’ve got the money, which means you can see it on tax that year.
“I hope that it continues into the future, especially for the smaller operations that have limited administration staff, because it helps to take away some of the complexity in tax returns.”
Though he views the continuation of the write-off as a plus, Mr Broekman said he would like to see the threshold boosted.
“Myself, personally, I’d like to see it increased to cover vehicles, so tradies can replace their utes,” he said.
“So it’d be good to see it increased to $30,000 to increase that level of purchase.”
Gunnedah accountant Treena Daniells said the the redefinition of a small business was also good news for Gunnedah.
“Redefining the definition of a small business from a $2 million turnover to a $10 million turnover, that’s significant,” she said.
“It gives [smaller businesses] an opportunity to take advantage of the lower tax rates.”
Gunnedah NSW Farmers secretary/treasurer, Geraldine McKay, said the Budget seemed to be “very well received across the community”.
“Our one reservation would be where the bank taxation ends up - whether that’s funded by the bank’s shareholders or the bank’s customer,” she said.
“And of course, farmers are a very big part of the customer base of the banks, and [banks] are vital to the funding and cash-flow of farming businesses.”
Ms McKay said the branch was pleased with the retention of the instant asset write-off.
“The NSW Farmers Association had actively campaigned quite strongly for the retention of the $20,000 annual depreciation immediate write-off and we were quite relieved that it was kept going in this Budget,” she said.