Federal Budget announcement 2025 – updates for businesses

The key considerations for businesses as a result of the 2024-2025 Federal Budget announcement are as follows:

Small business entities – $20,000 instant asset write-off

The instant asset write-off threshold will remain at $20,000 for small business entities for a further 12 months to 30 June 2025.

Small business entities are entities whose aggregated turnover is less than $10 million.

Eligible assets include those that cost less than $20,000 and are used in the carrying on of a business and have been first used or installed and ready for use between 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.

Depreciating assets that cost $20,000 or more (which cannot be written-off) can continue to use the small business pool and depreciate at a rate of 15% in the first income year and 30% each year thereafter.

Small business entities – energy bill relief

The Government announced it will provide a $325 rebate to eligible small business entities on 2024-25 bills. The credits will be applied in quarterly instalments. Eligibility requirements are yet to be announced. We expect further details in the coming months.

Medium and large business entities

No relief has been made available for entities with an aggregated turnover of $10 million or more.

Accordingly, the depreciation rules revert to the standard application, which broadly includes depreciating the asset over the effective life of the asset.

Payday superannuation

The proposed changes to the timing of employee superannuation remain unchanged.

Payday super requires employers to pay their employees superannuation on the same day they pay their salary/wages rather than the current monthly or quarterly cycles.

The proposed change is to be effective from 1 July 2026.