ACL 390611 | MFAA Member | Established 2005
Farm Machinery and Farm Equipment FinanceBuilt Around the Season. Not the Calendar.
Tractors, headers, balers, sprayers and seeders, alongside the fencing, water and storage that goes in the same year. Income on a farm arrives in lumps, so farm equipment finance should be shaped to match. We arrange it across 100+ lenders for primary producers Australia-wide.
15 minutes. Bring the machine you are looking at and roughly what the season looks like. No paperwork, no obligation, and nothing goes to a lender without your say-so. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement and we disclose it in writing before any work begins.
Intellect Finance – Farm Machinery Finance
Independent since 2005 | ACL 390611What Is Farm Machinery and Farm Equipment Finance?
Farm machinery finance, also called farm equipment finance, funds the plant a farm runs on and the on-farm assets around it. Tractors, headers, balers, sprayers, seeders and feed mixers, alongside fencing, water reticulation, silos, hay sheds and irrigation. It is business purpose lending secured against the equipment, usually structured so repayments fit income that arrives once or twice a year. The two terms mean the same thing: Australian lenders write farm machinery loans and farm equipment loans on the same paperwork.
The structure matters more here than on almost any other asset class. A machine bought in March may not earn anything until December, and a monthly repayment set by a calendar has no relationship to when the money arrives. Annual and seasonal repayment profiles are ordinary practice in agricultural lending, and which ones are available depends on the lender, the asset and the trading history.
Because these assets are financed for a farming business, this is not regulated consumer credit and Best Interests Duty does not apply as a matter of law. We work to the same standard anyway and put in writing how we are paid, which lenders were considered and why, before you sign anything.
If the equipment is not agricultural, the page you want is equipment finance, where the asset rather than the season sets the terms. A farm truck over 4.5 tonnes sits on our truck finance page and a work ute on commercial vehicle finance.
Common Situations
Why Primary Producers Come to Us for Farm Equipment Finance
Six situations cover most of the farm machinery enquiries we take. The common thread is timing rather than the machine.
The machine is needed now and the income lands later
The most common one by a distance. A header or a seeder has to be in the paddock before the season, and the cheque that pays for it arrives after it. Everything about how the finance is structured follows from that gap.
Used farm equipment at a clearing sale or a private sale
Buying outside a dealership is completely normal in agriculture and it narrows which lenders will fund it. Age, hours and who is selling all move the answer. Worth knowing what you can borrow before you bid rather than after.
The machine and the infrastructure in the same year
A tractor plus new fencing plus a silo is one capital plan and three different fundable assets. Most people ask us about the tractor and mention the rest as an aside. It is usually worth doing the other way round.
Water and irrigation before anything else
Pumps, pipe, tanks, troughs and reticulation. There is no resale market for buried pipe, so these sit with different lenders and different terms than a self-propelled machine does. They are still fundable.
The accountant is a season behind
Full financials are often not current on a farm, which knocks out some lenders and not others. Where trading history and bank statements can carry it, our low doc lending options are the route.
A good year and a large tax bill coming
This one needs your accountant before it needs us. Buying farm equipment is one answer and it is not usually the best one, because the tax system already carries two tools built for exactly this. We say so on this page.
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Joseph Sukkar
Principal Broker · ACL 390611
Who You’re Dealing With
Built on 25 Years in Australian Finance
Joseph Sukkar started in finance in 2000 and founded Intellect Finance in Penrith in 2005. Since then the team has arranged more than 6,500 loans for clients across Australia, from first homes to complex commercial and asset finance.
Farm equipment files sit with Charbel, our Commercial and Complex Lending Specialist, because a machinery purchase is a cash flow problem before it is a lending one. The useful work is the conversation about when the income actually arrives, and that happens before anything is submitted rather than after a lender has already set the repayment date.
Part of Our 100+ Lender Panel
The names most people recognise are residential lenders. Much of what we arrange runs through funders that do not advertise to the public. Accreditation with a lender is not an endorsement by it, and which lender suits you is decided by your file rather than by who is on this list.
Tell Us When the Money Actually Arrives
Fifteen minutes and the machine you are looking at. We work backwards from the season.Loan or Lease
Three Ways a Farm Equipment Loan Can Be Structured
Farm equipment finance is written in one of three shapes, and the difference between them is who owns the machine while it is being paid for. A chattel mortgage makes you the owner from day one. A finance lease leaves ownership with the financier for the term. Farm equipment leasing under an operating lease or rental keeps the asset off your books entirely and hands it back at the end.
Chattel mortgage
You buy the equipment and own it outright from settlement. The lender advances the funds and registers a security interest over the machine on the Personal Property Securities Register, which stays there until the facility is paid out. The equipment sits on your balance sheet from the start and the debt sits against it.
Finance lease
The financier buys the machine and leases it to your business for an agreed term. You have use of it and pay for that use, and what happens at the end of the term, including any purchase option or residual, is set out in the contract you sign. Read that section before you sign, not after.
Operating lease or rental
Closer to hiring than to buying. The asset stays the financier’s, the term is usually shorter, and at the end you hand it back or renegotiate. Farm equipment leasing on this basis suits machines you want to turn over regularly, and it suits nothing you intend to keep for fifteen years.
Which structure suits you is a tax question as much as a finance one. Ownership, depreciation, GST and how the payments are treated all move with the structure, and the answer depends on your entity, your accounting method and how the equipment is used. That is a conversation for your registered tax agent, and we will happily set the finance up either way once you have had it. We do not earn more from one than the other.
What Actually Decides It
The Machine Is the Only Thing on the Farm With No Special Tax Rule
The Australian Taxation Office applies general depreciation rules to most assets used in primary production, then carves out a short list that gets special treatment: water facilities, fencing assets, fodder storage assets and horticultural plants. The tractor is not on that list. So a farm buying machinery and a fence and a silo in the same year is buying three different tax assets, and the deduction timing on each one is different.
Four things in one capital plan and four different rules
The ATO’s position is that general depreciation principles apply to most depreciating assets used in primary production, with special rules for a named few. Water facilities and fencing attract an immediate deduction. A fodder storage asset can be deducted at full cost. Horticultural plants are worked out on establishment expense. Nobody plans a capital year around that, and it changes what the year actually costs.
A silo stops being a fodder storage asset depending on what is in it
The test is whether the asset is primarily and principally for storing fodder, which the ATO describes as food for livestock such as grain, hay or silage. A silo holding seed for sowing does not meet it. Nor does one holding grain grown for human consumption. Same steel, same shed, same paddock, and a different answer at tax time.
Fencing counts all the way down to the droppers
A fencing asset extends to the parts: posts, rails, wire, droppers, gates, fittings and anchor assemblies, and it reaches a repair of a capital nature or an alteration, addition or extension to a fence. Fencing put up to keep stock out of degraded country can instead fall under landcare operations, which is a separate provision with its own conditions.
The water is immediate and the power line running it is ten years
A water facility acquired primarily and principally for conserving or conveying water in a primary production business gets an immediate deduction. The capital cost of connecting or upgrading mains electricity to the land is claimed in equal instalments over ten years, and so is a telephone line. Two halves of the same job on two completely different clocks.
The farm equipment itself gets no concession at all
Nothing in the primary production rules gives a tractor, a header or a baler special treatment. It is an ordinary depreciating asset, worked out the ordinary way, and any small business concession that reaches it reaches every other business too. Which is worth knowing, because the machine is usually the biggest number in the plan and the only one with no lever on it.
Two tools already exist for a lumpy income and neither is a loan
A farm management deposit lets an eligible primary producer set aside up to $800,000 in total, deductible in the year deposited and assessable when drawn, generally held twelve months. Income averaging evens income and tax over a maximum of five years. Opting out of averaging binds you for ten income years and cannot be revoked.
Checked 10 September 2026. Every tax rule described on this page is from the Australian Taxation Office: depreciating assets for primary producers, fencing and fodder storage assets, deductions and offsets for capital expenditure, landcare operations, the farm management deposits scheme and income averaging. Each rule carries conditions this page does not reproduce and your own position is a matter for a registered tax agent. Everything else on this page is described in the important information at the foot of the page.
We are finance brokers rather than tax agents, and none of the above is advice on your circumstances. The order you buy things in changes what the year costs, and that is worth working out before the order goes in. Bring the whole capital plan.
The Honest Comparison
Buy the Farm Equipment Outright or Finance It?
Not broker against bank. Borrowing is not always the right answer here and buying outright is not always available, so both sides are argued in full.
Pay for the machine from cash already in the business
- No interest, no term, no security registered over the machine
- Nothing to service in the season that does not go your way
- Simplest answer where the machine is small against the balance sheet
- The working capital that bought it is no longer available for the season
- One season pays for an asset that will work through several
Spread the cost across the seasons the machine will work
- Cash stays in the business for inputs, labour and the next opportunity
- The repayment profile can be set annually or seasonally rather than monthly
- The cost sits across the years the machine earns rather than in one of them
- Machinery and infrastructure can be structured together in one plan
- It is a commitment across seasons you cannot forecast, and it costs more than cash
If the machine is small against the balance sheet and the cash is sitting there, buy it. There is no version of this where borrowing beats buying outright on cost alone. The whole argument for financing is what else that cash could be doing across a season, and on a modest purchase that argument is often not worth making. We will say so.
If the farm is under real financial pressure there is a government lender to check before a commercial one. The Regional Investment Corporation is funded by the Australian Government, states plainly that it is not a bank, and lends to eligible farm businesses up to $2 million over a ten-year term with the first five years interest only. Its loans are aimed at refinancing existing commercial debt, getting through drought and disaster, or buying into a first farm, so eligibility is narrow and a new machine is not what they are for. Check it anyway. We are paid nothing if you use it.
And if the farm equipment is being bought to deal with a tax bill, that is your accountant’s question and the answer is often no. A deduction lowers the cost of an asset you had already decided to buy, whether you buy it outright or finance it. Where the real problem is a strong season landing on one return, a farm management deposit or income averaging may do the job without putting a machine or a liability on the farm. Both are ATO schemes with conditions, both are free, and neither earns us anything.
What we will not do is stretch the term until the repayment fits a bad year. If the only way the numbers work is over a term longer than the machine will realistically last, the machine is too big for the operation and a longer term just moves the problem. Where the real issue is the gap between doing the work and being paid for it, a cash flow facility or invoice financing is a smaller transaction for us and usually the right one.
Ask Us to Cost the Version Where You Do Not Borrow
Buying outright, a farm management deposit or a government loan can all beat us. We say so before you sign. Fifteen minutes. No obligation.The Difference
Why Use a Farm Equipment Finance Broker Instead of the Dealer’s Finance Desk?
A dealership offers you the funders it is accredited with. We compare 100+ lenders and, more to the point, we start with the repayment date rather than the rate, because a facility that takes money in a month with no income puts pressure on the season it was meant to help.
Always in Writing
Best Interests Duty is a legal obligation on consumer credit and it does not extend to business purpose lending. We work to the same standard here anyway, and the way you can hold us to it is in writing: how we are paid, which lenders were considered, and why we recommended the one we did, before you sign anything.
Structured Around the Season
We start with when the income arrives and work backwards to the repayment, rather than taking a standard monthly profile and hoping the year covers it. Which profiles are actually available depends on the lender and the asset, and finding that out is the work.
No Fee. Not Even Clawback.
We do not charge you for the analysis, the comparison, the structuring or the applications, on any asset and any number of them. If a facility is paid out early we wear the clawback ourselves rather than invoicing you for it. Lenders pay a commission on settlement, disclosed to you in writing before any work begins.
We Point at Cheaper Money Than Ours
A government loan you qualify for, a farm management deposit, or simply paying cash will sometimes beat anything we can arrange. We raise those in the first conversation rather than after the application, because a broker who never mentions them is telling you something about how they get paid.
The Process
How a Farm Equipment Loan Comes Together
Four steps. The first one is about the calendar rather than the machine and it decides most of what follows.
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15 minutes
The machine and the season it has to fit
What you are buying, roughly what it costs, whether it is new, used or coming out of a clearing sale, and when money actually comes into the business. No documents and no applications at this stage.
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We work it out
Whether to borrow at all, and in what structure and shape
Buying outright against financing, chattel mortgage against lease, a monthly profile against an annual or seasonal one, and whether the fencing, water or storage in the same plan should be funded with the machine or separately. If the answer is that you should not borrow, you get it here.
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You gather
Documents
What a lender asks for varies with the entity, the asset and how current your financials are. We confirm exactly what your chosen lender wants before you go looking for any of it.
- ABN and GST registration details
- Director or partner identification
- Financials or tax returns where they are current
- Recent business bank statements
- An invoice or sale details for the equipment
- Make, model, year and hours on a used unit
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We manage
From approval through to settlement
We deal with the lender, the documents and the seller, whether that is a dealership, an auction house or a neighbour. Settlement on a private or clearing sale has more moving parts than a dealer purchase and that is our job rather than yours.
Track Record
Independent Since 2005
Farm machinery and complex commercial files sit with Charbel, who does this work every day, rather than with whoever happens to be free that afternoon.
Related Options
Other Ways to Fund a Farming Business
Farm machinery is one line in the capital plan. These are the neighbours, and two of them are the answer when the problem turns out to be timing rather than plant.
Equipment finance outside agriculture
Plant and equipment for a non-farming business, where what a lender will fund is decided by the asset rather than by the season.
Trucks over 4.5 tonnes
The farm truck rather than the tractor, where heavy vehicle law decides what the unit can legally carry.
The farm ute or van
Where a different set of tax thresholds applies and the vehicle classification rather than the season sets the ceiling.
Cash flow facilities
For the gap between putting a crop in and being paid for it, which is a different problem to funding the machine.
Lending on different evidence
Where the financials are not current and the trading history has to carry the application instead.
Every asset we finance
Back up to the full range, including the four financing structures set out side by side and how each is treated.
Work Out the Shape Before the Season Does.
Fifteen minutes and you will know whether to borrow and in what profile.Questions Answered
Farm Machinery and Farm Equipment Finance FAQs
The questions primary producers ask us most often before getting in touch.
What is farm machinery finance?
Farm machinery finance, also called farm equipment finance, funds the plant a farm runs on: tractors, headers, balers, sprayers, seeders, feed mixers and the on-farm assets around them. It is business purpose lending secured against the equipment, and it is usually arranged so that repayments fit an income which arrives in lumps rather than monthly. The structure matters more here than on most asset classes.
Is farm equipment finance different to farm machinery finance?
No. They are two names for the same thing and Australian lenders use them interchangeably. Farm equipment loans, farm machinery loans, agricultural equipment finance and farm plant finance all describe funding an income producing asset for a primary production business. What moves the answer is the asset itself and the entity buying it, not the words used to search for it.
How can I finance new farm machinery for my property?
Start with when the money arrives rather than with the machine. New farm machinery is normally funded by a chattel mortgage or a lease secured against the equipment, over a term set by the working life of the asset, with repayments that can be annual or seasonal. Bring the purchase, the season and the rest of the capital plan.
Can I finance fencing, water infrastructure and a silo as well as the machine?
Often yes, and it is worth asking in the same conversation. Fencing, water reticulation, silos, hay sheds and irrigation are all fundable, though they usually sit with different lenders and different terms than a self-propelled machine does, because there is no resale market for a fence. Bring the whole capital plan rather than one machine at a time.
How do lenders treat used farm equipment bought privately or at a clearing sale?
Differently to a dealer purchase, and the difference is policy rather than law. Age, hours, make and whether the seller is registered for GST all move what a lender will advance and over what term. A private or clearing sale is financeable, it just narrows the panel. Tell us before you bid rather than after, because the answer can change what you bid.
Can I lease farm equipment instead of buying it?
Yes. Under a lease the financier owns the equipment and you pay for the use of it, with an option at the end of the term. Under a chattel mortgage you own it from day one and the lender registers a security interest over it. Which structure suits depends on how the asset is used and on tax treatment, a question for your registered tax agent.
Can repayments be structured around harvest instead of monthly?
Commonly, yes. Annual, seasonal and structured repayment profiles are ordinary practice in agricultural lending, and which ones you can get depends on the lender, the asset and the trading history. This is described as practice because it is practice rather than a rule. The point of the conversation is to match the repayment shape to the income shape.
What decides the rate on a farm equipment loan?
The asset, mostly. Age, type, hours and resale market move it, and so do the term, the deposit, the entity borrowing, the trading history and whether the facility is secured by the equipment alone or supported by property. We publish no rates on this page because each one is set by an individual lender and changes. Ask us for current pricing.
Do I have to put up the farm as security for farm machinery finance?
Not usually. Most farm machinery finance is secured against the equipment itself, with a security interest registered on the Personal Property Securities Register. Offering property security is a separate decision. It can widen the panel and change the terms available, and it also puts the land behind the facility. Understand that trade before you agree to it rather than at signing.
Is a new fence deducted the same way as a new tractor?
No, and this is the part that surprises people. The Australian Taxation Office applies general depreciation rules to most assets used in primary production, but special rules to some: primary producers can claim an immediate deduction for fencing and for water facilities, and the full cost of a fodder storage asset. The machine itself has no such rule. Confirm your position with a registered tax agent.
Should I buy farm equipment to reduce tax in a good year?
That is a question for your accountant and not for us, and the honest answer is often no. A deduction lowers the cost of an asset you decided to buy. If the goal is to smooth a good year, the tax system already has two tools for that: farm management deposits and income averaging. Neither is a loan, and neither earns us anything.
Do I need up to date financials to get approved?
Not always. Some agricultural and asset lenders will work from an ABN, trading history and bank statements where full financials are not current, which is common on a farm where the accountant is a season behind. The evidence is different rather than lighter. Where that route fits, it sits alongside our low doc lending options.
Can you arrange farm equipment finance outside New South Wales?
Yes. Our office is in Penrith in western Sydney and we arrange and settle farm machinery and farm equipment finance for primary producers in every Australian state. Machinery files run almost entirely by phone and email, which is how most of them run even for a client an hour down the road. Nothing about the process needs you in the room.
Does Best Interests Duty apply to farm machinery finance?
No, not as a matter of law. Best Interests Duty applies to credit provided for personal, domestic or household purposes, or for residential investment property, and equipment financed for a farming business sits outside that framework. We work to the same standard anyway and disclose in writing how we are paid, which lenders were considered and why, before any work begins.
Visit Us
Penrith Based.Farm Equipment Finance Australia-Wide.
Penrith is our head office and the one you can walk into without an appointment. We also meet clients at Parramatta and in the Sydney CBD by arrangement. Farm machinery files run almost entirely by phone and email, and we arrange and settle farm equipment finance for primary producers in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Parramatta
Suite 23, Level 1, 181 Church St, Parramatta NSW 2150
Commercial finance broker Parramatta →Sydney CBD
Level 18, 25 Bligh St, Sydney NSW 2000
Commercial finance broker Sydney CBD →Ready When You Are
Bring Us the Machine and the Season.
Fifteen minutes with Charbel. Tell us what farm equipment you are buying, what else is in the capital plan and when the money actually comes in, and we will tell you whether to borrow at all, what shape the repayments should take and which lenders will structure it that way.
No paperwork, no obligation. Penrith based, clients Australia-wide. Intellect Finance Pty Ltd, ACL 390611.
Finance for assets acquired wholly or predominantly for business purposes is not regulated consumer credit, and the Best Interests Duty and responsible lending obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 do not apply to it. We disclose how we are paid in writing before any work begins. The tax rules described on this page are published by the Australian Taxation Office and carry conditions this page does not reproduce. We are not registered tax agents. Nothing on this page is credit assistance, tax advice, legal advice or an offer of credit, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member
Important information General information only. Not credit assistance or tax advice. We charge you no fee. Every caveat and source on this page is collected here. Tap to read.
General information only. The content on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not credit assistance, financial advice, legal advice or tax advice, and it is not an offer of credit. You should consider whether it is appropriate for you and seek your own advice before acting on it.
The tax rules on this page are summaries and they are not advice. The primary production provisions described here are published by the Australian Taxation Office and each one carries eligibility conditions, definitions and limits that this page does not reproduce. Whether any of them apply to you depends on your business, your entity and how each asset is used. We are finance brokers, not registered tax agents or solicitors. Confirm your own position with a registered tax agent or with the ATO before you rely on any of it, and before you decide what to buy or when.
We publish no rates, repayment figures or write-off thresholds here. Pricing on a farm equipment loan is set by the individual lender and moves with the asset, the term, the structure, the security and the borrower. Instant asset write-off and small business depreciation thresholds change, are set by the government of the day, and depend on your aggregated turnover and on when the asset is first used or installed ready for use. Nothing on this page is a quote, and where an asset is being bought with a threshold in mind, that is a question for your tax agent and the ATO.
Chattel mortgage, finance lease and operating lease are described in general terms only. Ownership, end of term rights, residual obligations, GST treatment and how payments are treated for tax all depend on the specific contract and on your circumstances. Which structure is right for you is a matter for your registered tax agent and your accountant, and the terms of any facility are those in the documents you sign rather than those described here.
Farm management deposits and income averaging are tax schemes with their own conditions. Both are described on this page because they are relevant to the decision about whether to borrow at all. Both carry eligibility rules, caps, holding periods and consequences that are not set out here, including the effect of electing out of averaging. Neither is a product we arrange, neither earns us anything, and nothing on this page is advice about using either.
The Regional Investment Corporation is a separate lender and we do not act for it. Its programs, eligibility criteria, amounts, terms and rates are set and published by the RIC and change over time. We mention it because it may be cheaper than anything we can arrange for an eligible farm business. Confirm the current position with the RIC directly. We receive no fee, commission or referral payment in connection with it.
Much of this page describes lender practice rather than law. Repayment profiles, what a lender will fund on a used or privately bought machine, deposit expectations, terms, age and hours limits, and what evidence is accepted in place of current financials are all individual lender policy. Policy varies between lenders and changes over time. Nothing on this page sets a rule and none should be inferred from it.
Seasonal and annual repayment profiles are not available on every facility. Where this page describes structuring repayments around income, that is how agricultural facilities are commonly arranged rather than an entitlement. Which profiles you can access depends on the lender, the asset, the entity and the trading history, and none of it is guaranteed.
Business purpose lending. Where machinery, equipment or infrastructure is financed wholly or predominantly for business purposes, that is not regulated consumer credit, and the Best Interests Duty and responsible lending obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 do not apply to it. Different protections apply to business borrowers than to consumers. If you are unsure which framework your facility sits in, ask the lender and obtain the answer in writing before you sign.
The asset is the security, and guarantees are common. Farm equipment facilities are secured against the asset, a security interest is registered, and lenders commonly require guarantees from directors or partners and sometimes additional security. Where infrastructure is funded alongside plant, the security position can be broader than it looks. If a facility is not met the lender can take and sell the asset, and any shortfall remains payable. Read what you are being asked to guarantee before you sign it.
Borrowing against a seasonal income carries a risk this page does not price. A repayment profile matched to an expected harvest still assumes the harvest. Season, price, yield and weather are outside anyone’s control, including ours, and no structure removes that. Consider what the facility looks like in a year that does not go to plan before you commit to it.
Nothing here is a guarantee. Approval, borrowing capacity, pricing, terms, deposit requirements, which assets a lender will finance, age and hours limits and how long anything takes are determined by individual lenders, not by us. They differ between lenders and change over time. Any range or timeframe on this page is indicative and is not a quote, an offer, or a prediction of your outcome.
How we are paid. Intellect Finance does not charge borrowers a fee for arranging finance, and does not charge a clawback fee where a facility is paid out early. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement. The basis of that commission is disclosed to you in writing before any work begins, together with the lenders considered and the reason for the recommendation.
Third-party information. Where this page refers to legislation, regulatory guidance or authority publications, that information is sourced from the relevant authority and was correct to the best of our knowledge at the date shown on this page. Those rules change, sometimes without notice. Always confirm the current position with the issuing authority or with us before relying on it.
Found something wrong? If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate or out of date, tell us at joe@intellectfinance.com.au and we will review and correct it.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member