In our 12 March article, we advised that the Federal Government had announced a depreciation incentive to support business investment in response to Covid 19.

Today the Federal Treasurer announced a six-month extension to 31 December 2020 for the $150,000 instant asset write off incentive.

The legislation to give effect to this extension will be introduced shortly. The updated stimulus measures are:

  • Increasing the instant asset write-off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000 from 12 March 2020 until 31 December 2020 and expanding access to include businesses up to an aggregated turnover of $500 million (previously $50 million).; and
  • Introducing a depreciation incentive (through to 30 June 2021) by accelerating depreciation deductions. Businesses with a turnover of less than $500 million will be able to deduct 50% of the cost of a depreciable asset, with existing depreciation rules applying to the balance of the asset's cost.