Environmental tax breaks
Under the current legislation, section 12B of the Income Tax Act, businesses can depreciate investments in renewable energy and bio fuel production at a rate of 50:30:20. By allowing accelerated depreciation on these assets, SARS is giving businesses a cash flow advantage which should assist in the investment in renewable energy projects. The amendments to the Income Tax Act section 11 and 12B now propose that support structures related to the investments in renewable energy and bio fuel production should be depreciated at the same rate as the Plant and Machinery depreciation rate detailed above.
The reasoning behind the amendment is to allow businesses implementing the renewable project to receive benefit for the majority of the costs of the projects, not only for the physical wind turbines, solar PV panels and similar energy-generation
