Most guides to horse agistment cover fencing, water and paddock rotation. Those matter, but they are not usually what sinks an agistment business. The pressure tends to come from the numbers: fees set years ago and never reviewed, feed bills that spike in a dry season, and records that make tax time harder than it should be.
This guide covers the operations briefly, then spends most of its time on the financial side.
Start with the basics: approvals, care and insurance
Requirements for keeping other people’s horses vary by state and by council. Before you take on horses, check with your local council about land use and with your state’s agriculture department about animal welfare obligations, and keep a copy of what they tell you.
Two things are worth settling early:
- A written agistment agreement for every horse. It should set out the fee and what it includes, feed arrangements, who pays for vet and farrier work, notice periods, and what happens if fees go unpaid. Have a lawyer review your template once rather than improvising each time.
- Insurance that matches the risk. Talk to a broker about cover for horses in your care, public liability for owners visiting the property, and any extra services you offer.
Price per head from your real costs
Many agistment fees are set by looking at what the property down the road charges. That is a reasonable starting point and a poor finishing point, because your costs are not theirs.
Work out your cost per horse per week:
- Fixed costs: rates, insurance, loan repayments, fencing and water infrastructure, depreciation on equipment.
- Variable costs: hay and hard feed, supplements, pasture improvement, your own time.
Divide the fixed costs across a realistic number of horses (not the number you hope to have), add the variable cost per horse, then add your margin. If the result is above the local going rate, the gap tells you where to work: fill empty spaces, trim a cost, or price your extra services properly.
Offer tiers rather than one fee. Paddock-only, paddock with supplementary feed, and full care are different products with different costs, and charging them as one fee usually means the full-care clients are being subsidised.
Plan for the dry season before it arrives
Feed is the cost that moves most, and it moves against you exactly when pasture is short. A simple 12-month cash flow forecast shows the months where outgoings run ahead of fees, so you can:
- build a cash buffer in the good months;
- buy and store feed when prices are lower, if you have the storage;
- write a feed surcharge clause into your agreements, so a drought does not come straight out of your margin.
Our cash flow forecasting guide walks through building one.
GST: know where your turnover sits
You must register for GST once your GST turnover reaches $75,000. The ATO tests this two ways: your current turnover (this month plus the previous 11) and your projected turnover (this month plus the next 11). Reaching either means you must register. A growing agistment business with a few full-care clients can cross the line sooner than expected, so check both figures regularly, not just at year end.
Once registered, you will lodge activity statements. As a registered BAS agent, we can take that on.
Business income or rent? Ask the question early
How agistment income is treated for tax depends on whether you are carrying on a business. The ATO’s myTax instructions say that agistment or hire fees that are not derived from carrying on a business are reported as rent, not as business income. Which side of that line you sit on affects how your income and expenses are reported, so raise it with your tax agent early rather than at lodgement. We work alongside your tax agent and can make sure your records support whichever treatment applies.
Keep records that answer questions on their own
Good records make every decision above easier. At a minimum:
- one invoice per client per period, with payment tracked against it;
- feed, vet and farrier costs coded so you can see cost per horse;
- receipts captured digitally, not in a shoebox. Our guide to digital record keeping covers how.
Cloud accounting software such as Xero, QuickBooks Online or MYOB can send invoices automatically and chase late payers for you, which matters when fees are due weekly or monthly.
Where Ascend fits
Clean books are base camp. From there, the climb is knowing your true cost per horse, pricing with confidence, and seeing the dry season coming months ahead. Ascend is a CPA-led practice and registered BAS agent based in Canberra and Brisbane, working with businesses Australia-wide.
