I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking! You don’t pay your HECS through Smartsalary, you pay it directly to the ATO through either:

1. Your employer’s PAYG deductions, or
2. Direct payment at tax year-end (if the ATO sends you a bill for additional HECS).

As explained in the article above, if you package threshold (i.e. the ‘cap’ benefit) while you have a HECS debt you will be asked to pay off more of that debt than you otherwise would have. That is – the ATO will expect you to pay more HECS than you would if you were not packaging.

This extra HECS liability won’t deducted from your salary automatically – you will need to either ask your employer to increase the HECS deductions they are taking from you salary or you will need to start putting money aside now to pay the extra HECS amount when it is billed to you by the ATO at year-end.

If you’re still unsure of how to proceed you should contact our service center and discuss your situation fully with one of our service agents.

The ATO minimum for a 5 year vehicle lease is 28.13%.

Last year we completed the acquisition of Webfleet, a fleet management business based in Victoria. Webfleet has quite innovative web-based systems, and a strong account management structure, while AVC has strong vehicle sourcing and maintenance capabilities, so the two companies are proving to be quite complementary that together look to deliver industry-leading fleet management solutions. They are both now collocated in South Melbourne.

To answer your questions specifically, you should continue to experience the same service you’ve had with AVC in the short-term, as we develop enhanced capabilities going forward.

You’ve asked quite a technical question so unfortunately I have to give you a technical answer!

Under Australian FBT law meal entertainment fringe benefits are defined as “the provision of entertainment by way of food or drink”. In a reimbursement scenario (such as a salary packaging arrangement) this definition is generally interpreted to mean that your expenditure must directly relate to an event that confers entertainment on the employee (and any other participants). A meal at a restaurant, for example, is an event that confers entertainment on the participants and direct expenditure on such a meal would therefore qualify.

By contrast there are various items that, while ultimately destined to be consumed as meal entertainment, will not confer entertainment on anyone at the time of purchase. A good example of this is an unopened bottle of wine purchased from a liquor store: the bottle will eventually be consumed, thus providing meal entertainment at a later time, but it does not confer any entertainment on anyone at the time it is purchased. This can be contrasted with an opened bottle of wine served during dinner, which obviously is intended to entertain immediately.

Spreets/Scoupon/Cudo vouchers are akin to an unopened bottle of wine in this regard. They will eventually be used (and will confer entertainment at that time) but at the time of purchase they are merely items of property that entitle the holder to a meal at a later date. No entertainment is conferred on the employee through purchase of the voucher, and thus the legislative requirements of “meal entertainment” are not fulfilled.

Whilst we appreciate that this is a conservative interpretation of the law, Smartsalary’s view is that taking the alternate approach would create unacceptable taxation risk for your employer.