Can I tax deduct my stock?

[jaydisc]

Can I tax deduct my collection stock?

I am a sole trader and run a legitimate software development business.

I have also started investing in collectibles as a business venture / investment. To prove this, I can provide receipts for all the stock that I have acquired to date. I also have some very slight income from the sale of a few collection pieces which unfortunately, since I did not wait for maturity, have been sold at cost or a loss. This has been for the sake of networking and establishing relationships in the industry. So, overall, this new business venture has resulted in a loss of about $5,000 this financial year.

Note that the inventory that I am building now will not mature and reap benefits for around 10 or 20 years, and I expect to operate at a loss until then.

Is this feasible?

Obviously, I'm not expecting accountant level advice, but are any of you doing this? Familiar with any of the rules surrounding this?