Draft Taxation Determination

TD 94/D102

Income tax: is a hearse a unit of property for the purposes of section 57AF of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (the Act) and therefore subject to the limit on cost price for depreciation?

• Please note that the PDF version is the authorised version of this draft ruling.
  This document has been finalised by TD 95/25.

FOI status:

draft only - for comment

Preamble

1. No. A hearse is not a motor vehicle of a kind described in paragraph 57AF(1)(b) and therefore is not subject to the limit on cost price for depreciation.

2. The Macquarie Dictionary defines a hearse as 'a funeral vehicle for conveying a dead person to the place of burial'.

3. Section 57AF applies to a unit of property (other than an excluded unit of property) being:

(a)

a unit of property in respect of which depreciation is allowable under this Act; and

(b)

a motor vehicle (including a vehicle known as a four wheel drive vehicle) that is a motor car or station wagon.

4. Within ordinary parlance and having regard to the purpose of section 57AF, we consider that a hearse is not a unit of property that comes within the relevant description of motor vehicle. Therefore the cost price limit in section 57AF does not apply.

Commissioner of Taxation
20 October 1994

References

ATO references:
NO PUL A857; 94/6061-6

Subject References:
allowable deductions
depreciation
depreciation limit
motor vehicles
hearse

Legislative References:
ITAA 57AF
ITAA 57AF(1)(b)