Yes — Fully Claimable
Can I Claim Software Subscriptions as a Business Expense in Australia?
Yes — SaaS subscriptions used in the business are fully deductible against company income in the year incurred. Perpetual software licences over the depreciation threshold are capitalised and depreciated over 4 years.
Typical claim: A$2,500–A$10,000/year
What Australian Taxation Office (ATO) says
Software subscription fees are revenue expenditure deductible under s8-1 ITAA 1997. In-house software developed or purchased outright is depreciated over 5 years (4 years for assets first used in 2015–16+) under Division 40 Subdivision 40-E.
When you can claim
- Monthly/annual SaaS (Xero, AccountsOS, Slack, Notion, Adobe Creative Cloud)
- Domain names, hosting, cloud storage
- Stock photography subscriptions
- Mobile app subscriptions used for business
When you cannot claim
- Personal subscriptions without business use
- Mixed-use subscriptions without apportionment
- Software licences over instant asset write-off threshold (capitalise)
Related expenses
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