End of financial year is when every small business owner in Australia suddenly remembers their tax return exists. If you have been putting off tech purchases or have nagging IT problems, the weeks before June 30 are actually a smart time to act. Here is a practical checklist.
The instant asset write-off (the part worth knowing)
Under the instant asset write-off rules, eligible small businesses can deduct the full cost of business equipment, including computers, laptops, tablets, monitors, and printers, in the year they are bought rather than depreciating them over years. The thresholds and rules shift year to year, so confirm the current details with your accountant, but the principle stands: buying needed equipment before June 30 can bring the tax benefit forward a full year.
That dying laptop, the desktop that takes ten minutes to boot, the monitor with the flicker? If you were going to replace them anyway, doing it before EOFY is often smarter than waiting until July.
What typically qualifies
- Computers, laptops, tablets used for business
- Monitors, printers, scanners
- Point-of-sale hardware
- Network gear: routers, switches, Wi-Fi access points
- Software subscriptions and licences (sometimes deductible anyway)
- Security cameras and business phone systems
Do not buy junk just for a deduction
Your accountant will tell you the same thing: a tax deduction is a discount, not free money. Spend $1,000 you did not need to spend and you are still out most of $1,000. The smart play is buying equipment you genuinely need, timed well.
The non-purchase EOFY tech checklist
Beyond hardware, EOFY is a good trigger to sort the boring-but-important stuff:
- Verify your backups actually work. When did you last check? A backup that has silently failed for six months is not a backup.
- Review who has access. Ex-staff still on your email, shared drives, or cloud accounting?
- Update everything. Operating systems, accounting software, that router firmware you have been ignoring.
- Check your domain and hosting renewals. Losing your domain name is an expensive embarrassment.
- Tidy your records. Can you actually produce invoices and receipts if the ATO asks?
A note on scams
EOFY is peak season for fake ATO emails and “refund” scams. The ATO will never email you a link to log in and claim a refund. Any message creating urgency about your tax return deserves suspicion, not a click.
June 30 arrives fast
Computer suppliers get busy in late June for exactly this reason. If you are planning a purchase or an upgrade, earlier in the month is better than the last week.
