Andrew Sirianni

A website (or website application) is a great asset to a business. In today's digital age, having an up-to-date and useful website is not an option, it's a necessity and it provides a great amenity to both the business and its customers. However these systems can be costly. Did you know how you can claim website expenses for your business? Today we review some feedback from the Australian Taxation Office about claiming website costs.

In this article, we feature content from the ATO's Newsroom website.  This is the article we are referring to which was last updated 03 April 2017.

As it stands as of April 3rd 2017, here is the directions from the ATO on claiming website related costs:

Claiming website costs

You can depreciate the costs over time by various depreciation methods. But, special rules apply to in-house software made for business use and not for sale.

If the expense it

  • In-house software then: Use the prime cost method to deduct the cost each year
  • Included in a software development pool then: Deduct the different propoortions of the expense each year

If you choose to allocate software expenditure to a pool, then the costs have an effective life of 5 years if you incur them on or after 1 July 2015.

Claiming ongoing running and maintenance costs

You can also claim an outright deduction for some ongoing expenses associated with running and maintaining your website, such as domain name registration fees and server hosting costs. 

You can also find out more about business deductions in the following video from the ATO:

For more information about accounting for your website, speak to your Accountant/Tax Adviser.

* Disclaimer: This article is not offering tax advice. Individual circumstances may differ between individuals and businesses.  Please consult a taxation professional before taking any action.

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