Hi, Just asking here because it’s the weekend. If I am purchasing software that is tax deductible, can I pay for it from an investment loan account and would the interest then be deductible? Thanks, Karen
It won’t send us to the poor house but it’s a couple of grand. Cash flow has been an issue for us in the first half of this year so as a purchase it would most likely end up being put off until next financial year if not paid for out of a loan and I’d like to use the software now. More of a first world problem...
What does the software do ? If it is software to analyse future property acquisitions the costs may need to be apportioned or may even be non deductible ? Guess the first question is whether the software is fully tax deductible. How does it relate to income earned ?
Share trading I bet. Likely not 100% deductible. I encountered software a few years back - Popular scam of its day. Helped pick shares and it was a black box type product. Hence it was a scam (operated out of SE Qld and included well known characters) . It was dead useless and was found by ASIC to be a scam without AFSL or any qualified support in its design. Client wanted to claim and I had reasons to be concerned and suggested private ruling. ATO said it was preliminary and did not demonstrate outcomes akin to actual income production ie it was scam. Non deduction, No CGT issue. Nil. Worse still they said the share trading was not a business and the taxpayer didnt utilise own skills and resources but that of the black box (third party). Limited deductions to extent of income. (You can guess.... he made losses) Buying software up front to me is akin to self education before starting a new better job esp where the software and seminars / education are aligned. Can be a tax risk as the education isnt deductible so why should the software ?. That said there are some trading platforms like Iress etc that are quite low cost and are real trading systems almost necessary to assist managing trades, frequency, exposure and position changes.
i use tradingview for my forex and share trading analysis. premium subscription is around $200 usd per annum. and its an awesome tool. if its in the thousands would need to be some highly specialised software with a limited customer base.
@MikeLivingTheDream and @Paul@PFI thank you both for commenting. It is subscription based trading software/platform and is 12months up front cost but can be charged monthly for much less. I tend to buy everything annually where there is a discount eg. Health insurance. I will most likely hold off or do a couple of monthly payments to start with
