Changes to the boost is now a Federal law – from June 2023
On 29 March 2022, as part of the 2022–23 Budget, the then government announced it would support small business through these new measures. The measures became law on 23 June 2023. The technology investment boost and skills and training boost for small businesses are now operational and must be applied.
Time to Boost!
Small business technology investment boost
Small businesses (with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million) can deduct an additional 20% of the expenditure incurred for the purposes of business digital operations or digitising its operations on business expenses and depreciating assets such as portable payment devices, cyber security systems or subscriptions to cloud based services.
This measure applies to expenditure incurred in the period commencing from 7:30 pm AEDT 29 March 2022 until 30 June 2023. An entity can claim the boost for expenditure on a depreciating asset only if the asset is first used, or installed ready for use, by 30 June 2023.
An annual $100,000 cap on expenditure will apply to each qualifying income year. Businesses can continue to deduct expenditure over $100,000 under existing law.
Eligible expenditure may include, but is not limited to, business expenditure on:
- digital enabling items – computer and telecommunications hardware and equipment, software, internet costs, systems and services that form and facilitate the use of computer networks
- digital media and marketing – audio and visual content that can be created, accessed, stored or viewed on digital devices, including web page design
- e-commerce – goods or services supporting digitally ordered or platform-enabled online transactions, portable payment devices, digital inventory management, subscriptions to cloud-based services and advice on digital operations or digitising operations, such as advice about digital tools to support business continuity and growth
- cyber security – cyber security systems, backup management and monitoring services.
Where the expense is partly for private purposes, the bonus deduction can only be applied to the business-related portion.
You cannot claim the following expenses towards the boost:
- salary and wages
- capital works costs
- financing costs
- training or education costs (these may be eligible for the Small business skills and training boost)
- expenses that form part of your trading stock costs.
Small business skills and training boost
Small businesses (with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million) will be able to deduct an additional 20% of expenditure that is incurred for the provision of eligible external training courses to their employees by registered providers in Australia. Businesses may continue to deduct expenditure that is ineligible for the bonus deduction in accordance with the existing tax law.
The expenditure must be:
- for the provision of training to employees of your business, either in-person in Australia, or online
- charged, directly or indirectly, by a registered external training provider that is not you or an associate of yours
- already deductible for your business under taxation law
- incurred within a specified period (between 7:30 pm AEDT or by legal time in the ACT on 29 March 2022 and 30 June 2024).
The bonus deduction is available for expenditure for the provision of training to one or more employees of your business. The training provider must meet certain registration criteria for the bonus deduction.
You can check for registered providers at:
You cannot claim the following expenses towards the boost:
- training of non-employee business owners such as sole traders, partners in a partnership or independent contractors
- costs added on an invoice by an intermediary on top of the cost of training, such as commissions or fees, as they are not charged directly or indirectly by the registered training provider.
If you have any questions regarding these coming changes – de Kretser is here for you.
Need more information?
If you need assistance understanding how the comparison information relates to your circumstances, we are here to help, so please contact us for further information.
We look forward to working with you.
T: +61 3 9550 6900