FBT and car parking – finally a settled issues as regards relevance of shopping centre type car parks?

On 8 October 2026 the High Court announced it had not granted Toowoomba Regional Council special leave to appeal an unfavourable Full Federal Court’s decision involving whether car parking at Toowomba’s the Grand Central shopping centre was at a commercial parking station for FBT purposes. The Full Federal Court decision may be viewed here.

The decision is of significant consequence to employers who provide parking to employees and where such parking is within a 1km radius of a shopping centre (or other) car parking facility which could be argued as not having a primary purpose of providing all day parking for the public and/or operated to make a profit (if viewed on a stand alone basis).

We covered the decision in the May 2026 TaxEd Update – click here to see our article.

In terms of what the High Court’s position means:

• the FBT issue as to what is a commercial parking station would now appear to be settled;
• the ATO position in TR 2021/2 (as to what makes a car parking facility a commercial parking station) is therefore the appropriate basis on which to approach FBT compliance. The ATO position focuses heavily on physical features of a parking facility such as advertising, entry/exit controls, payment mechanisms etc;
• FBT compliance for FBT 2027 and beyond should proceed on the basis of principles outlined in TR 2021/2; and
• depending on the position an employer has taken in earlier FBT years, remedial action may now be required.

For FBT 2027 the car parking threshold is $11.48.

So to summarise:

1. Is the employer exempt from FBT on car parking benefits provided to employees; and
2. If not, have all commercial parking stations within a 1km radius of employer provided parking been identified and tested as to the “lowest” all day parking fee charged on the 1st business day of the FBT year. This “test” is relevant to both whether the parking station has a lowest all day parking fee above the car parking threshold (which means the employer has a car parking fringe benefits exposure) AND whether the lowest all day fee is relevant to establishing a taxable value of car parking fringe benefits.

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This article provides a general summary of the subject covered as at the date it is published. It cannot be relied upon in relation to any specific instance. TaxEd Pty Ltd and any person connected with its production disclaim any liability in connection with any use. It is not intended to be, nor should it be relied upon as, a substitute for professional advice.