Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously, that changes from year to year and, obviously, in order to be able to benefit from a tax deduction you have to have taxable income. If you provide somebody with a capacity to more quickly depreciate the value of an investment in an asset of up to $20,000, then obviously the only way that is going to be of benefit to you is if you have taxable income against which you can depreciate the value of those assets. As I have indicated in my summing up speech, potentially up to 780,000 incorporated small businesses will be able to benefit from various measures in this budget. All up, the small business package, targeted at small businesses with a turnover of up to $2 million dollar, potentially will benefit—up to 96 per cent of businesses across Australia. Obviously, to a degree, their level of profitability is something we will review after the event, after this financial year is finalised.