The Australian Tax Office says that the iPad is equivalent to a laptop for taxation purposes and is eligible for a refund of up to $750 under the Education Tax Refund scheme.
If Apple had moved a little sooner it might have convinced Kevin Rudd to give every Australian tax payer an iPad 3G instead of a $900 handout.
But at least the Australian Tax Office is on side, with the ATO confirming to
SmartCompany that the iPad is a tax deductible item and for taxation purposes will be treated as a laptop.
(This is despite Apple and almost everyone else affirming that the iPad is most certainly not a laptop, but who are we to quibble when there’s money on the table?)
The ruling means that a 50% refund on the purchase price of an iPad can be claimed under the Federal Government’s
Education Tax Refund scheme.
This program lets you claim up to half the cost of selected education expenses for each child at school. For children attending primary school there’s a spending limit of $750, which means you can claim up to $375 per child. For secondary school students the ceiling is boosted to $1,500, so the rebate is up to $750 per child.
You can also group together related items, such as a new 802.11n wireless router to provide the home-based iPads with Internet access via Wi-Fi.
(You might even be able to make the case for an external USB drive, Time Capsule or NAS to backup the Mac or Windows machines onto which the iPads are backed up through iTunes.)