The Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business and General Business Tax Break) Act 2009 provided a one-off bonus deduction for businesses that purchase eligible assets. It received Royal Assent in May 2009.

The Act incorporates various amendments, which include:

• increasing the rate of the bonus deduction for small business entities to 50%;
• clarifying the rate of the bonus deduction to be used on a batch/set of identical assets where a taxpayer is a general business; and
• clarifying that a taxpayer who chooses to self-construct an eligible asset is not precluded from the bonus deduction.

The rate of the bonus deduction remains unchanged for general businesses. That is, either 30% or 10% depending on the acquisition time of an eligible asset.