Resellers and MSPs gush over federal budget

CRN also spoke to two regional resellers that were happy with the federal initiatives.

Greg Williams, of Lincoln Computer Centre in South Australia, called the timing "perfect" for business customers in the run up to the end of the financial year.

"Spend $20,000 in June, get a $20,000 deduction in July. That's a good deal," he said.

Williams said there are some questions remaining on practicalities – using a car purchase as an example. "Would we buy something under $20,000 to get the instant deduction, or would we still buy the more expensive vehicle we need and take the normal depreciation, or would we go second-hand? That will be interesting to see how that plays out."

The asset write-off and low interest rates mean the incentive to borrow and invest in a business has "probably never been better", according to Williams, but he pointed out that consumer spending was also an important consideration.

With profits smaller than in years past, he doubted the tax rate would result in significant savings for his business. Williams also called out the move to make FBT no longer apply on computers bought for employees, saying the change was a good thing for salary packaging and better than the normal salary sacrifice arrangements.

Also welcoming the budget news was Dennis Evans from Dennis' Computers and Backup Service in northern Queensland, who said that once the changes pass the Senate he’ll be sending out emails to his clients.

"A lot of clients have servers and PCs over six years old. They’re just holding out because of the lack of confidence. Now they can write it straight off, I think they’ll jump on the bandwagon," he told CRN.

Evans is also eyeing a purchase for his own business – a wall-mounted battery recently unveiled by electric car company Tesla Motors.

"I’ve already sent emails out last night around how I can get hold of these and take advantage of that $20k," he said, saying the technology would help him reduce expensive power bills.

GE Capital's ANZ general manager of distribution finance Paul Mitchell said the tax breaks would "help improve the way financial institutions look at the serviceability of resellers in the channel".

"This in turn will, hopefully, have a positive impact on increasing liquidity in the channel. There are still, however, unique cash cycle constraints in the Australian ICT channel, and whilst last night’s budget announcements will help, financial institutions still need to work closely with the channel to promote greater liquidity in the sector."

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