Save your receipts: Tax time is coming (and so are weird tax deductions)!

If you’ve been following our coverage of the Government’s recent budget measure that allows small businesses to write-off assets under $20,000 (rather than depreciating them over time), then you’re probably also aware that the tax breaks have already come into effect.

Some businesses have been upgrading company cars, technology, and office furniture, and so long as each purchase doesn’t exceed $20k, they’ll go towards reducing the business’s taxable income this financial year. But there are some other, more unusual, purchases businesses are also able to claim as tax deductions, according to a recent report in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Unusual Tax Deductions

Ping pong tables, Xboxes and cable TV subscriptions: As long as they’re used for employee entertainment – in other words, the ping-pong table or Xbox is located in the workplace and used by staff during their lunch breaks or other downtime – then they’re an allowable tax deduction.

Backyard studios: Many home-based workers are taking the opportunity to install prefabricated studios in their backyards to be used as their office or studio, so long as they don’t border on a granny flat with kitchens and bedrooms. Most prefab studios cost well under the $20,000 threshold, and make a nice change for home-based workers used to cramming themselves into a bedroom, office nook, or wherever there’s free bench space.

Artwork: You usually find that any art in a restaurant or café has been donated by a local gallery owner, or more commonly, rented from galleries specialising in corporate art rentals. For the next few years, however, businesses will have the opportunity to purchase their own artwork and claim it as a tax deduction.

Knives and pedicures: Perhaps two of the strangest tax deductions on the list. Knives can be claimed as a tax deduction, according to the smh, if the person was a professional knife swallower (or, I dunno, a chef?), while foot models could claim pedicures, and make-up is a tax deduction for make-up artists… of the dead. Of course, I’m willing to wager that make-up artists of living, breathing people can also claim the tools of their trade too.

There are only a couple more weeks left of June, so it’s a good time to make any asset purchases you may need for your business. Whether it’s a car, new computer, backyard studio, or art for the office, get in before June 30 and you’ll be able to claim it as a tax deduction on this year’s tax return.

To read more of our coverage about this year’s federal budget, particularly, our post on the proposed changes to childcare subsidies and how it may affect mums working from home, continue reading our blog.