05 Feb Primary Producers – New Tax Changes

The Australian Government has introduced some positive improvements for Primary Producers in the recent budget announcements:

Improving the Farm Management Deposit Scheme

• From the 1st July 2014, the ATO are raising the non-primary production income threshold from $65,000 to $100,000.
• The new tax laws have changed to allow PP to consolidate multiple FMD’s into a single deposit without any tax consequences.
• The FMD will still need to be held for at least 12 months and individuals can still claim the tax deduction on FMD deposits.

Accelerated Depreciation

• From 7:30pm (AEST) 12^th May 2015 primary producers can immediately deduct the cost of fencing and water facilities such as dams, tanks, bores, irrigation channels, pump, water towers and windmill. Under the current laws fences are depreciated over 30 years and water facilities are depreciated over 3 years.
• The cost of fodder storage assets such as silos, tanks used to store grain, and other animal food storage can now be depreciated over 3 years. Under the current laws fodder storage assets are depreciated over 50 years.

There is significant tax savings to be had as a result of the new budget announcements.

Image by Michael Coghlan on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)