Dash 8 Capt, I am no expert on tax, and based on my net worth, also pretty useless at high finance.
However, I probably qualify as an 'expert' (if there is such a thing) on the pitfalls of operating both aircraft and boats. Unless you are a Richard Branson and have figured out a way to get 2000 hours a year of revenue flying out of your airframe, there is no future in owning the thing. AND don't even think about propping up your investment by putting it on line with a flying school or charter company, because they never achieve the high utilisation that they promise (unless 'high' can be considered to be 100 hours a year).
With boats, there was a time when you could buy one and put it into charter under management of an agency, which of course took out commission, management, cleaning and maintenance fees before occasionally handing you some small change to make you feel good about your wise investment. The theory was that there would be sufficient demand that you would make a small loss but end up owning it in five years on the tax write-offs. In practice there were never enough punters, or too many competing boats, so the losses were large. The ATO got royally p!ssed off with buying boats for people, so brought in rules requiring any wannabe Aristotle Onassis to prove his shipping venture to be viable. The result was - and still is - plenty of cheap, slightly damaged, ex-charter boats on the market.
A different situation MAY apply if your company had a genuine need of air transportation and you could prove to the ATO that this could not be adequately served by airlines. e.g. carting specialised equipment to remote sites.
Tailwheel's advice re items that float, fly or fornicate is sound.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 25th Jun 2012 at 12:38.