Articles

Question If a staff member attends a third party conference and wins a lucky door prize to the value of $1,000 (entry was based on providing a feedback form for the conference), would this need to be declared as a gift and subject to FBT as being over the $300 minor benefit threshold? Answer It […]

Where an employer pays/reimburses an employee’s road toll expenditure or allows the employee to use the employer’s electronic road toll tag, a fringe benefit may arise, depending on the particular usage of the vehicle. Payment/reimbursement of an employee’s road toll expenses is prima facie an expense payment fringe benefit. Use by an employee of an […]

A difficult aspect of employment is the unhappy ending. Occasionally cessation of employment will be followed by litigation regarding matters such as unfair dismissal or claims for underpaid wages. In fact, claims for underpaid wages often also occur where employment continues. Once claims are settled and amounts paid to resolve the matter employers then need […]

As 30 June approaches, one of the annual end year processes that may be required of a not for profit (NFP) that receives dividend income from their investment portfolio or trust distributions is to apply for a refund of the franking credits attached to the dividends/distributions. The process of applying for a franking credit refund […]

Question We are considering providing in-house therapeutic massage for all employees. Is this an exempt fringe benefit pursuant to the ‘work related preventative health care’ exemption? The preventative health care component will consist of: massage to reduce tightness in muscles and any incidence of sprain or strain and to educate individuals on how to avoid […]

As employers prepare 2021/22 FBT returns it is normal practice to simultaneously prepare Reportable Fringe Benefits data attributable to individual employees. Some timely reminders as you go about this task: only where an employee has the requisite more than $2,000 in taxable value of Reportable Fringe Benefits (pre gross up at 1.8868) does an amount […]

At our recent TaxEd FBT Roadshow, the treatment of electric vehicles was regularly raised. In particular people wanted to confirm how electric cars are treated for FBT purposes. In short, for now at least, electric cars are treated as per others cars for FBT purposes. The FBT definition or a ‘car’ is taken from section […]

We recently received a Q&A from a member asking about GST and invoices from overseas suppliers. Question: Our Accounts section is querying whether an overseas invoice with GST can be processed with the GST included. The invoice has an ARN (Australian Registration Number) and appears to be for the purchase of an online subscription. GST […]

Question If an employee, who has full private use of a one tonne vehicle and who is required to carry bulky items (e.g. ladder, tools etc,) travels to various sites directly from his home, including during out of hours and on weekends, would those trips be eligible for home to work business travel? The various […]

We issued a TaxEd Special Edition on 1 April 2022 (see here) drawing attention to the fact the car parking FBT rules may be changing again. Yes, again. On 29 March 2022 the Assistant Treasurer Hon. Michael Sukkar MP issued a press release entitled Consultation on car parking fringe benefits. Its fair to say the […]