Novated Lease

Hard to find a good Toyota Service Centre. My first (10,000Km) service was incomplete because the mechanic did not know how to unlock any door other than the driver's door. I have two-stage unlocking programmed-in. I had the inconvenmience of re-attending to show the service centre manager how to unlock the front passenger door and rear door and to also rectify the oil leak that they gave me. Then at 30,000Km service I had to explain that my vehicle has an on-board computer which removes the need for service reminder stickers on my windscreen. They do not know much about their own product. I Read The Manual (RTFM). THEY could read the manual and learn about what they sell and service. Not Happy Jan! Ho Hum

Hi Rory, the last 3 rows of your table should probably not say "Contracts commenced from..." because this gives the impression that contracts entered into before that date will stay at the previous rate - this is not correct from my understanding, ie. existing (low) rate contracts will be subject to an increase in FBT rate each year till they reach 20%. Regards, Peter. Thanks for the comment Peter. According to the Chartered Accountants Review of the FBT change, lease holders liability will indeed depend upon the date lease holders commence their lease (correctly outlined in the table above). We do however understand that there is some confusion over the change and, with this in mind we look forward to more finite details which have been sought by the AFLA (Australian Fleet Lessors Association) who are currently liaising with the Treasury Department. These details primarily revolve around the definition of the term “contracts entered into”. We will update any details as we receive them. For others reading this; please rest assured that if you do have a novated lease which you entered into prior to the FBT changes you will not be impacted by these altered rates and thresholds. This clarifies the situation somewhat. No impact on existing contracts, and for those that have signed an order but not yet received delivery, they will also fall under the old FBT regime. http://www.charteredaccountants.com.au/Industry-Topics/Tax/Current-issues/Tax-news/Regulatory-and-government-updates/24-05-11-Fringe-benefits-tax-reform-of-the-car-fringe-benefits-rules Rory, do you know if it will be possible for existing lease holders to elect to move to the new strucuture if you're already doing low km's to avoid the paperwork burden? Taking into account the above article its fairly evident there will be a massive impetus on many more drivers to switch to the logbook method if maximisation of claims is to be achieved. If it is obvious that you can better the 20% flat rate more drivers will keep a logbook for a continuous 12 week period, after all its valid for five years on the same vehicle if its is indicative of the normal use of the cae. It is even easier now to keep logbooks - you can buy a fully tax deductible Australian made iphone app for less than the headache of keeping a written logbook (and then having to perform all the manual calculations to get your percentage business use). One such app is VehicleLog available on the Apple App Store. Rory, I am changing the company who manage my lease, but not the finance company. should I continue on the old rate? @Kurross we will need to look into your details for this one. I have mailed you my details. As I see it a sales person who has to take out a loan so their company can conduct business now is going to be penalised for visiting a lot of customers and would be better off staying in the office? e.g Someone doing 35,000km a year mainly for work will be slugged 20% instead of 11% - so effectively the EMPLOYEE is fined for buying an asset, taking the risk of that asset depreciating, reducing that employees ability to borrow funds for their personal benefit, and now is lured into travelling LESS at the expense of good customer service??? And the people who drive their cars less (typically the executive are rewarded because they get an FBT cut?