A fringe benefit is a benefit provided to you or an associate (for example, your spouse or children) ...
A fringe benefit is a benefit provided to you or an associate (for example, your spouse or children) through your employment. You can be a current, former or future employee.
Benefits can be provided by:
1. Your employer
2. An associate of your employer a third party under an arrangement with your employer. The term benefit includes any right (including any property right), privilege, service or facility. A benefit could be:
3. The use of something, for example, a car, house or equipment
4. Ownership of something, for example, items of clothing, enjoyment of a privilege or facility, or staying at a holiday home.
You could receive a benefit when your employer gives you:
1. A work car for private purposes
2. A cheap loan
3. Free private health insurance
4. Home cleaning services.
You could also receive a benefit if you enter into a salary sacrifice arrangement.
Some work-related benefits are exempt from FBT. The following work-related benefits are not considered to be fringe benefits.
1. A mobile phone or car phone used mainly for your employment.
2. Protective clothing required for your employment.
3. A briefcase.
4. A calculator.
5. A tool of trade.
6. An electronic diary, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or similar item.
7. A notebook, laptop or similar portable computer (limited to one a year).
8. A portable printer designed specifically for use with a notebook computer, a laptop computer or a similar portable computer.
Announced changes to work-related benefits exemption
The Government has announced that the FBT exemption that currently applies to work-related items will only apply to items that are provided by an employer to an employee primarily for work purposes.
The FBT exemption will be limited to one item of each type per employee, per FBT year unless it is a replacement item.
The list of FBT exempt work-related items will also be extended to include all work-related portable electronic devices, including those with multiple functions.
The changes to the FBT exemption for work-related items will apply to items purchased from 7.30pm (AEST) on 13 May 2008.
Also, the income tax law will be amended to disallow employees from claiming depreciation for the work-related percentage of FBT-exempt items. The changes that disallow depreciation for FBT-exempt items will take effect as follows:
For items purchased from 7.30pm (AEST) on 13 May 2008, this measure will take effect from that time.
For items purchased before 7.30pm (AEST) on 13 May 2008, employees will be denied depreciation for the 2008–09 and later income years
