Agribusiness looks to make the most of small business tax breaks

Agribusiness manager Australian Bight Abalone will be producing a new Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) in July to take advantage of tax breaks being offered to small businesses by the Federal Government.

“We will be putting out a supplementary PDS in the first week of July,” Australian Bight chief executive officer Andrew Ferguson said.

“We will also be seeking Australian Taxation Office guidance on the tax treatment of investing in our scheme and claiming the tax break.”

The tax break allows small business entities that have a turnover of less than $2 million a year an additional tax deduction of 50 per cent on the new eligible depreciating asset.

The business has to buy the asset between December 13, 2008, and December 31, 2009, and use it before December 31, 2010.

Ferguson said in his scheme, the investor buys the infrastructure where the abalone grows, which makes it a depreciating asset.

Ferguson said the supplementary PDS would enable investments to be made until December 31 this year.

“We will then be issuing a new product in 2010 for the rest of the financial year,” he said.

The inflows to this year’s scheme are unknown at present, although Ferguson admitted it had been tough.

“We did not get our product ruling until April and by the time we got a PDS to market there was little time for attracting investors,” he said.

“There is never a big window for inflows into schemes due to these constraints.”