Small businesses have access to a range of tax concessions. This applies to sole traders, partnerships, companies or trusts.

 

To qualify for these concessions, you'll need to check whether your business is a 'small business entity' for the year in question.

 

In general, to meet this requirement, your aggregated turnover must be less than $2 million.

 

Your aggregated turnover is your gross income or proceeds (rather than your net profit) for an income year. When working this out you need to:

 

• include the annual turnover of any entity you are connected with or that is an affiliate of yours at any time during that income year

• exclude any goods and services tax (GST) amounts you have charged on your sales.

 

You must review your eligibility each year.

 

The small business concessions include:

 

• Income tax concessions

• Capital gains tax (CGT) concessions

• Pay as you go (PAYG) instalment concessions

• GST and excise concessions

• Fringe benefits tax (FBT) concession

 

One of the most exciting concession changes of recent times is the small business immediate write off for assets costing less than $20,000 each.

 

Small businesses can immediately deduct the business portion of most assets if they cost less than $20,000 and were purchased between 7:30pm 12 May 2015 and 30 June 2017.

 

This deduction can be used for each asset that costs less than $20,000, whether new or second-hand. The deduction is claimed through a tax return, in the year the asset was first used or installed ready for use.

 

From 1 July 2017, the threshold will return to $1,000.