Comments on: Are the novated lease benefits you enjoy today at risk?

By: ceosmartsalary

ceosmartsalary — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 05:51:51 +0000

Hi Dianne

Actually, there haven’t been any changes to the law recently that affect the ability of employees to claim credit card payments under the tax-free benefits cap (available to public hospitals and some PBIs).

Are you packaging through SmartSalary? If so, I can confirm that the credit card reimbursement process you describe in your post continues to be acceptable. If not, then it would be best to contact your provider and have them confirm this for you.

By: Dianne warren

Dianne warren — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:08:00 +0000

At present I send in a copy of my credit card expenditure and receive the threshhold benefits Is this now against the law and must I use a debit card. i have tried to get an answer to this question as I don’t know what is right or wrong . PPlease answer me.

By: Mark Moffatt

Mark Moffatt — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:34:38 +0000

In regard to promoting extra driving there-fore increasing stress on the environment I would suggest that this would be a minority of leased vehicles.
My family are situated in a country town & transit to various locations, for this reason we have purchased vehicles that are low on fuel consumption, Diesel Renault 5.7L/100Km consistantly & a C3 Citroen which is similar in consumption.

By: ceosmartsalary

ceosmartsalary — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:49:05 +0000

Thanks everyone for sharing your opinion in our novated leasing poll.

It looks like just about everyone (98%!) wants some kind of concession in place for novated leasing. About a third of you want to leave the concession as it is. And two thirds want to modify the concession to something that is a little more green-friendly, whether it be to: (a) increase the number of kilometres brackets, (b) apply a flat rate, or (c) make it emissions based. Interestingly enough the most popular of the three suggestions appears to be to apply a flat tax break. This means that all novated leases would get the exact same break, thereby eliminating the need to drive more.

Clearly people think this concession is a valuable one and don’t want it to disappear completely. Perhaps a phased strategy would make most sense? In the first phase, we could simply apply the flat rate (as so many of you suggested!) and then move gradually to an emissions based concession, as more locally manufactured low-emission petrol, hybrid and electric vehicles begin to appear on the horizon.

Deven

By: ceosmartsalary

ceosmartsalary — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:32:35 +0000

Warren,

Indeed! The current kilometres-based concession for novated leasing helps to simplify administrative requirements, alleviating the need for log books. Of course in our current age of global warming, it appears a bit anachronistic.

Deven

By: Warren

Warren — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:53:06 +0000

All this fails to recognise the original reason why the km brackets were established, it was not to reward drivers who travelled excess kms, rather, in recognition that a company veheicle provided to a sales rep or maintenance staff was not a luxury, but a necessity, and it was these vehicles that would be expected to travel high kms and hence attract a lower tax rate. On the other hand, a vehicle given to a desk bound senior manager was more likely to be used as a way of increasing remuneration outside of the tax system; was likely to travel far less kms, and was therefore taxed accordingly.

Further, if the Government is really interested in the environment, then it should be encouraging LPG and LNG usage and not introducing excise on these fuels. Both of which have ~ 60% less GHG emmisions than ULP or diesel in automotive applications. However, this would require some vision on behalf of Government, who seem much happier to simply allow our (comparatively) low emmisions energy resources to be sold off overseas at bargain basement prices, rather than invest in the infrastructure needed to more broadly embrace them.

I suspect the outcome will be like most reviews, very little intellect applied by Government; a solution that is the most politically palatable, and no meaningful consideration for the long term impact on the economy or the environment.

By: Andy smyth

Andy smyth — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:31:15 +0000

Given that the tax benifts in this country benifit all but the taxpayer and also that should you decide to buy a new house if your a foreigner and own propery off shore you are entitled to the full tax benifits including the first home owners grant. Great bloody country that they give you money towards a new house!!!

Also by the fact that I am of the age where we got nothing even if we fought a war we should not have been involved in and have been deficated on from a great hight by all on sundry exept where it is worth a vote? we did a great job and the country is proud of us. Bull—- we were spat on and s— on then and this is still the case. Giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other all for what some bloody politisn wanting the Green vote leave us honest tax payers alone and tackle the ones who are realy ripping the system off.

By: Denis

Denis — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:41:41 +0000

It’s fairly obvious that some reform is necessary. A tax system that encourages doing more kilometres than you really need to, is crazy in this day and age. Obviously, we would not want to lose the concession, so we need to come up with a system that benefits the environment as well as stakeholders. I think it will have to be something that encourages use of low-emission vehicles.