Statutory Depreciation Regimes for Intangible Assets

Currently, Australia’s uniform capital allowance system does not include a single mechanism for recognising the cost of intangible wasting assets. Instead, it has a number of separate and to some extent inconsistent regimes for different types of assets recognised by statute. It has been suggeste...

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Main Author: Allen, Christina
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2021
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/84397
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author Allen, Christina
author_facet Allen, Christina
author_sort Allen, Christina
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Currently, Australia’s uniform capital allowance system does not include a single mechanism for recognising the cost of intangible wasting assets. Instead, it has a number of separate and to some extent inconsistent regimes for different types of assets recognised by statute. It has been suggested that Australia should adopt a single mechanism to enable the tax system to accurately measure net income. However, implementing this suggestion would be ineffective without an in-depth understanding of the existing depreciation rules that apply to certain types of intangible assets. This article examines the history of the rules relating to four categories of depreciating assets and the policies underlying them: 1) rights and information in the resource industry; 2) intellectual property, other than trademarks, protected by statute; 3) in-house software; and 4) statutory or contractual rights relating to media and telecommunications. While these intangible wasting assets differ significantly, reviewing the depreciation rules for each category provides useful insights for building a new universal depreciation regime that can apply to all intangible wasting assets.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-843972022-01-05T02:21:08Z Statutory Depreciation Regimes for Intangible Assets Allen, Christina Currently, Australia’s uniform capital allowance system does not include a single mechanism for recognising the cost of intangible wasting assets. Instead, it has a number of separate and to some extent inconsistent regimes for different types of assets recognised by statute. It has been suggested that Australia should adopt a single mechanism to enable the tax system to accurately measure net income. However, implementing this suggestion would be ineffective without an in-depth understanding of the existing depreciation rules that apply to certain types of intangible assets. This article examines the history of the rules relating to four categories of depreciating assets and the policies underlying them: 1) rights and information in the resource industry; 2) intellectual property, other than trademarks, protected by statute; 3) in-house software; and 4) statutory or contractual rights relating to media and telecommunications. While these intangible wasting assets differ significantly, reviewing the depreciation rules for each category provides useful insights for building a new universal depreciation regime that can apply to all intangible wasting assets. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/84397 fulltext
spellingShingle Allen, Christina
Statutory Depreciation Regimes for Intangible Assets
title Statutory Depreciation Regimes for Intangible Assets
title_full Statutory Depreciation Regimes for Intangible Assets
title_fullStr Statutory Depreciation Regimes for Intangible Assets
title_full_unstemmed Statutory Depreciation Regimes for Intangible Assets
title_short Statutory Depreciation Regimes for Intangible Assets
title_sort statutory depreciation regimes for intangible assets
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/84397