"Is there a grant for tools?" and "is there a grant for a ute?" are two of the most common questions a trade business asks us, usually after an evening on Google produced nothing but a paid database and a few ads. The honest answer is no, there is no such grant, and the sooner a tradie stops looking for one the sooner they can use the two things that do exist.
Why there is no tools grant
Government grants fund an activity the government wants more of: an apprentice hired, an export market opened, an energy upgrade made, a piece of research commercialised. Buying the ordinary equipment a business needs to trade is not an activity anyone subsidises, because every business needs it. The business.gov.au finder has a filter for assistance with equipment, vehicles or tools,[5] and a search of it for a general trade-tools or vehicle grant returns nothing of that kind. Programs that touch equipment do so only where the equipment delivers a policy outcome, which is why they cluster around energy efficiency and emissions.
If a website is telling you it can find you a tools grant for a fee, reread that sentence.
What actually exists: the instant asset write-off
The real support for equipment is a tax measure, not a grant. Eligible small businesses can claim an immediate deduction for the business portion of the cost of an asset in the year it is first used or installed ready for use.[1] For a business with aggregated turnover under $10 million using the simplified depreciation rules, the limit is $20,000 per asset for assets first used or installed from 1 July 2023.[1]
That limit is now permanent. The ATO's new-legislation page states that the government announced in the 2026–27 Budget that it would permanently set the small-business instant asset write-off at $20,000 from 1 July 2026, and that the measure is now law.[2] Businesses no longer have to wait each year to find out whether the threshold survived.
Three details matter for a tradie:
- It is per asset, and each asset must cost less than the limit.[1] Ten tools at $3,000 each all qualify. One machine at $25,000 does not; it goes into the small business pool and is depreciated instead.[1]
- New and second-hand both count.[1] A used trailer or compressor is treated the same as a new one.
- It is a deduction, not cash. A $15,000 write-off reduces taxable income by $15,000. The cash benefit is that amount multiplied by your tax rate, and only if the business has profit to deduct it against.
The ute question
Most utes cost more than $20,000, which is the end of the instant asset write-off conversation for them. The ATO's own worked example makes the point with a $40,000 ute: even at partial business use the total cost exceeds the limit, so the write-off does not apply and the vehicle is depreciated.[1]
Vehicles also run into the car limit, which caps the cost you can depreciate on a passenger vehicle designed to carry fewer than nine passengers and a load under one tonne. The limit is $69,674 for 2025–26 and $69,883 for 2026–27.[3][4] Many single-cab and dual-cab utes with a payload over one tonne fall outside that definition, which is a question for your accountant, not for a grants page.
Equipment programs that come and go
Where government does fund equipment, it is because the equipment saves energy or cuts emissions, and the rounds close quickly.
- Energy Efficiency Grants for SMEs, Round 2 offered up to $25,000 to upgrade or replace inefficient equipment, first come first served, and is now closed to applications.[6]
- The Small Business Energy Incentive was a bonus 20 per cent deduction on eligible energy-efficient spending up to $100,000, but only for expenditure between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, so it has finished.[7]
- Queensland's business energy programs are listed on Business Queensland's energy-saving page, which is the place to check for anything currently open in the state rather than relying on older rebate names that have since disappeared.[8]
The pattern is the point. If a trade business wants a grant to help pay for equipment, the equipment has to be the energy-efficient replacement for something worse, and the business has to be watching when the round opens. A grant to buy the tools you would have bought anyway does not exist and is unlikely to.
What to do instead
- Buy tools and small plant as individual assets under $20,000 and claim the instant asset write-off in the year they are first used.[1]
- Talk to your accountant about the ute before you sign, because the car limit and payload definition decide the treatment.[3][4]
- Set a free alert on the business.gov.au finder for your state with the equipment filter, so an energy-efficiency round shows up while it is still open.[5]
- Put the energy that was going into hunting a tools grant into the incentives that do pay tradies: apprentice hiring support, which is real, current and worth thousands.
Tax thresholds and program status were checked against the linked pages on 7 September 2026. This is general information, not tax advice; the write-off rules have exclusions, and a registered tax agent should confirm how they apply to your business.