It’s time to review your fringe benefits
The fringe benefits tax (FBT) year ends on 31 March. That means it’s time to review the benefits you’ve provided to your employees for the last 12 months and work out which of those attract FBT.
You may provide your employees with benefits you do not usually provide because of COVID-19. This includes paying for items that allow your employees to work from home.
Fringe benefits tax (FBT) may apply if you provide benefits in addition to salary and wages. However, exemptions and concessions are available that can reduce (or eliminate) the amount of FBT you pay.
Examples of fringe benefits include:
- private use of work cars (logbooks are important, the ATO has guidance on motor vehicle expenses)
- entertainment (eg. concert tickets, AFL games)
- reimbursement of employees’ expenses (eg. visa applications, school fees)
- salary sacrifice arrangements.
Over the past year there have been many changes and restrictions due to COVID. To adapt, you may have provided your employees different benefits to those you usually provide, and these may be exempt from FBT.
Generally, you do not need to pay FBT for:
- items provided to employees to enable them to work from home (e.g. laptop or portable device, office furniture)
- emergency accommodation, food and transport
- emergency health care.
You can find out more about when it is (and isn’t) a fringe benefit here and read about the FBT COVID changes here.
If you think you have an FBT issue to manage then please get in touch.
