Tax Break Business

To help Australian businesses, a temporary tax break is available on plant and equipment you need to buy to keep your business running.

The tax break is not a refund, rebate or tax offset. It’s a tax deduction to reduce the assessable income of your business. Deadlines apply.

50% tax break for businesses with turnover less than $2 million.

If you own a small business that turns over less than $2 million a year, you can claim an extra 50% tax deduction on the cost of eligible assets which cost $1,000 or more.

To qualify, the asset must be bought between 13 December 2008 and 31 December 2009 and be installed by 31 December 2010.

30% or 10% tax break for businesses with turnover of $2 million or more.

Larger businesses may qualify for an extra tax deduction on eligible assets which cost $10,000 or more.

To qualify for the 30% tax deduction, the asset had to have been bought between 13 December 2008 and 30 June 2009. It will need to be installed by 30 June 2010. The 10% tax deduction is available depending on when the asset was bought. It needs to be installed by 31 December 2010.

What can I buy?

The tax break covers new, tangible, depreciating assets such as: n cars, vans, trucks and other business vehicles n computer hardware (but not software) n tools n furniture.

It also covers capital improvements to existing machinery and equipment.

Where do I find out more?

Contact your tax adviser, visit the website www.australia.gov.au/businesstaxbreak or phone the business tax break info line on 1300 337 921.

Continued from page 17 of musicians into Melbourne starting with Smt Vasumathi Subramaniam (Melbourne) and to the large community it is now. All those years ago, it had begun modestly at Dr Selvendra’s residence, gradually becomingwith full audio facilities provided by Charles Walke r- to what it is today.

The array of talents on display by the Carnatic music schools was breath-taking. The most awaited segment of the festival – the rendering of the Pancha ratna kritis of Tyagaraja – by the carnatic musicians of Melbourne, did not disappoint. This is a truly sublime musical experience to be had anywhere in the world, and it is Melbourne’s good fortune that it has so many gifted carnatic musicians who come together once a year in rendering such beautiful music together. For about 5 years, bharatanatyam had been incorporated into the Festival, but due to space and time limitations, it could not be accommodated this year.

Due to the growing interest of resident musicians in the Festival, the artistic director hopes to expand the event even further next year. He observed that good cooperation among the musicians, new initiatives, tolerance and understanding [of the objectives of the Festival and the limitations posed by time and resources] from all the teachers in the music community make this an enjoyable task for him every year.

The special feature concert this year was by the eminent vocalist Sowmya.

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Laya Vidya’s annual concert

THe AnnuAl concert of the laya Vidya Centre, held at the Chandler Community Centre last month, is a much anticipated event in the Melbourne Indian classical arts calendar. It showcases some of the best in mrudangam, and the melodic component always throws up a few pleasant surprises. This year was no different, and its director Sridhar Chari had a line up of some wonderful musical feasts.

The first section of the concert consisted of ‘laya vinyasam’ - a cascade of vocal percussion and mrudangam set to a melange of talas. The finale of this segment, which reached a crescendo with all the mrudangists playing in unison, was the piece de resistance of the evening, and was a testimony to the rhythmic skills and timing of the students.

In the second segment, Keertanamala, which followed after the intermission, the students of the Centre each had an opportunity to accompany vocalists, veena artistes and flautists.

Chitra Sudarshan

Books

A new literary novel is the talk of the town and it is NOT Aravind Adiga’s Between the Assassinations. Adiga’s Assassinations, which was written before The White Tiger, is a bleak, disturbing narrative. Whereas the protagonist Balram Halwai in TWT is aggressive in his deviousness, BTA seems more resigned in its misery and destitution.

It should be apparent to anyone now that Adiga sees, and wishes to see, nothing but the vile in India. Not that I have a problem with it - God knows there are countless vile things around - however, as I had written before in this very column, novels sometimes say more about their authors than they do about their protagonists: more about the novelists’ psychological make-up than that of their subjects!

Getting back to the latest sensation in Indian Writing in English (IWE), The Toss of a Lemon by the Canadianborn, Arkansas-based author Padma Viswanathan, has taken the literary world by storm, and has been compared to the debut novels of Jhumpa Lahiri and Arundhati