Maximise Your Marketing Tax Deductions: What Marketing Expenses You Can (and Can’t) Claim Before EOFY
As we approach the end of the Australian financial year, it’s the perfect time to review your expenses — and make some smart decisions that reduce your tax and set up strong marketing momentum for the year ahead.
At Orbit Marketing, we’re all about helping service-based businesses get more leads and more sales — but we also love seeing you get the most out of your marketing budget. As you probably already know, many of your marketing costs are tax-deductible. And there are even more advantages if you prepay before June 30.
Let’s break it down.
What Marketing Costs Are Tax-Deductible in Australia?
The ATO lets you claim deductions on marketing and advertising expenses, as long as they are directly related to earning your business income. That includes:
- Digital advertising: Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram ads, YouTube ads, and other paid digital campaigns.
- Marketing agency fees: The cost of working with a marketing agency (like Orbit Marketing. What a great idea!) is fully deductible if it’s tied to business promotion.
- Email and SMS marketing tools: Subscription costs for tools like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, or similar platforms. As long as you’re using the to promote your business they’re a great tax deduction.
- Graphic design and content creation: Costs for creating logos, brochures, social media graphics, ad copy, blog posts and even payments made to influencers and brand ambassadors.
- Printing and distribution: Flyers, postcards, signage, and any print advertising.
- Website costs: Hosting, domain names, landing pages, website development costs and SEO-related services.
- Photography and videography: If the photos/videos are for your business website or promotions.
Essentially, if it’s promoting your business or attracting customers—it’s likely deductible.
What Marketing Costs Are Not Deductible?
While most of the costs incurred through marketing are deductible, there are a few exceptions to watch out for:
- Non-business promotion: If the advertising is personal in nature or not tied to business activity, it can’t be claimed. This DOESN’T relate to personal branding. If you’re a coach, speaker or the face of your business, personal branding that helps generate revenue for your business is still deductible.
- Entertainment and gifts: Promotional giveaways, client lunches, or branded event tickets usually fall under “entertainment” and are either non-deductible or only partially deductible.
- Fines or penalties in ad spend: If your business violates advertising policies and is fined (e.g., platform penalties), you can’t claim these.
- Capital assets: A new computer for your designer or camera gear for your content creation might need to be depreciated over time rather than claimed upfront.
The Bonus of Prepaying Marketing Costs Before June 30
Here’s a smart tax strategy many small businesses overlook: prepay your marketing expenses now, and reduce your taxable income this financial year.
Under the ATO’s small business rules, if your turnover is under $50 million, you can claim up to 12 months’ worth of prepaid expenses in advance, including marketing.
That means you could:
- Lock in a marketing retainer with Orbit Marketing now and claim it this year. (we don’t advocate for paying 12 months up front, but 3 months is a good start) Right now you’ll get a fourth month at no extra cost PLUS you’ll avoid any July rate increases
- Create additional content such a library of blogs, newsletters and video content. It’s always useful to have additional content you can use when ads go stale (yep, ads do go stale) or when inspiration strikes and you’ve got a great idea for a new product, service or offer. In our experience, nothing slows down the process of taking an offer to market more than creating the visual content.
- Renew or upgrade your email marketing or SEO subscriptions early. You’ll often get a reduced price for paying 12 months at a time PLUS a tax deduction. Now you’re winning!
- Ask you regular suppliers about price breaks for paying up front. Many of them will be collecting extra cash for that August tax payment so you may get a very welcome response.
This puts money to work for you—while reducing your EOFY tax bill.
Final Word: Talk to Your Accountant
Every business is different, so while the above is general advice, make sure you speak with your accountant or tax adviser about the best strategy for your specific situation. You can also do more research on the ATO Website
But if you’re planning to ramp up your marketing efforts anyway—why not get a tax benefit out of it?
And if you want help planning a results-focused marketing campaign you can prepay before EOFY, reach out to Orbit Marketing today. We’ll help you make smart moves that drive growth and save you money. Want to know more? Reach out for a call with us HERE