Instant Asset Write-Off Calculator

Check the Asset’s Eligibility

This instant asset write-off calculator checks one asset for 2023-24 to 2026-27. The full-cost limit is $20,000, with a $1,000 historical limit for certain older acquisitions. It estimates the immediate business deduction when the entered facts meet the supported conditions.

Your client must carry on a business and qualify as a small business entity using a permitted aggregated-turnover test below $10 million. Aggregated turnover includes relevant affiliates and connected entities. Select the previous business year, actual current year or an eligible current-year estimate.

The estimate test has a restriction when turnover reaches $10 million in each of the two preceding business years. Annualise a part-year business where required. The ATO’s turnover-test explanation sets out the alternatives. A failed selected test can still leave another test available.

Confirm that your client uses simplified depreciation. If acquisition and first taxable use fall in different income years, confirm small business entity status and the simplified depreciation election separately for the first-holding year. Use the eligibility rules that applied in that earlier year.

The first taxable use or installation ready for taxable use must fall within the selected income year. Paying for equipment before year-end does not establish readiness when delivery and installation happen later.

The ATO’s asset limit guidance explains the strict threshold. The enacted 2026 amendments make $20,000 permanent for first taxable use or readiness from 1 July 2026. For first use or readiness in 2023-24 to 2025-26, the transitional acquisition rule requires acquisition at or after 7:30 pm ACT legal time on 12 May 2015 for the $20,000 limit. Earlier acquisitions keep the strict $1,000 limit.

On that boundary day, select whether acquisition occurred before or at or after the specified time. An unknown time leaves the deduction conditional when the threshold choice changes eligibility. The calculator supports standard June year-ends and ordinary acquisitions where acquisition is when your client first holds the asset. The statutory first-holding and first-use conditions apply to both years.

Calculate the Business Deduction

Start with the complete asset cost, including delivery and installation, before any trade-in credit. Subtract the GST credit your client can actually claim. The ATO’s GST cost rules distinguish full, partial and unavailable credits.

A client who is not registered for GST includes GST in the cost and enters $0 recoverable GST. Registration alone does not establish a full credit. For partial entitlement, enter the actual credit amount supported by the acquisition.

The calculator tests that whole adjusted cost against the applicable $20,000 or historical $1,000 limit. Only after the asset passes does it multiply the adjusted cost by business use. The private-use figure reconciles the remaining portion. A $20,000 adjusted cost fails even when 80% business use produces a $16,000 business portion.

The result is an income-tax deduction. The tax saving depends on your client’s tax position. Enter one asset at a time, with all its initial costs. Later improvements to an already deducted asset have separate rules.

When an Asset Does Not Qualify

A failed check shows Test not met and leaves the immediate deduction unavailable. Open Eligibility conditions to see every unmet condition. Needs facts means an entered eligibility fact remains unconfirmed. The cost reconciliation remains separate from the deduction decision.

The ATO’s exclusion list covers depreciating assets leased out for more than half their use, horticultural plants and software development pools. It also covers R&D assets, existing low-value pool assets and capital works. Select Excluded asset for these cases.

Select Already deducted or pooled for an existing claim. A passenger car using cents per kilometre has depreciation included in that rate. The actual-cost car option assumes the asset is otherwise eligible. Any applicable car cost limit is above this tool’s $20,000 threshold.

For an eligible small business using simplified depreciation, an otherwise eligible asset at or above the limit generally goes into the small business pool. This calculator does not calculate the pool balance. Assets outside simplified depreciation need the applicable general or special rules.

The depreciation calculator compares prime cost and diminishing value where those ordinary methods apply. Keep the invoice and evidence of first use or readiness with the calculation.

A Worked Asset Example

In this fictional example, a business acquires equipment for $14,850 including delivery. It is not registered for GST, so recoverable GST is $0. Previous-year aggregated turnover is $68,400 and simplified depreciation applies.

The business acquires the asset and first uses it during 2026-27. With no exclusion and 80% business use, the whole $14,850 cost passes the threshold. The immediate deduction is $11,880 and the private-use portion is $2,970. These are the default tool entries.

Change only business use to 60%. Eligibility remains unchanged, the deduction becomes $8,910 and the private-use portion becomes $5,940. Change only the cost instead to $20,000, keeping recoverable GST at $0. The cost test fails and the immediate deduction becomes unavailable.