Having A Tax-Free X-mas?

Reward your employees

Rewarding your employees is a very crucial part of giving back to your employees due to the hard work and effort, but having many employees to reward around Christmas time can be financially difficult so in this section I’ll discuss how to give cheap but presentable gifts.

Businesses need to keep in mind two major words during the x-mas period, these words are “minor benefits” and “$300”. The fringe benefits tax (FBT) expectations which is minor benefits valued at less than $300.

The $300 threshold is applicable for each any every benefit the business concurs, and definitely not to a total value of just relevant benefits.
For example: You as a business owner host a x-mas party and also give a gift to every employee active at your workplace. The party and the gift are considered separately for FBT if both are less than $300 of cost. Both the part and the Gifts are considered to be FBT-Free

Locate your party wisely

The best way to make sure that during this holiday period the celebrations are kept tax-free, in order to do so make sure you host the party at your workplace during the working week. Also to minimize the expenses make sure to limit the attendance to staff only. Also keeping in mind if staff members do attend to keep the budget below the $300 mark so the minor benefit requirements are being met.

If you do happen to not be locating the party at your workplace but in a different location bare in mind that it is important to keep the total cost under $300 which includes food, drinks, entertainment and other relevant costs.

Taxis

For an employer it is important for them to consider paying for taxi services to get there staff to the party form one place, but the most important question is where are pick and drop off places?

Having a taxi travel from work to where the party is being held said by the ATO that the taxi fare can be included in the cots per hear minor benefit limit.
Although if some staff choose to go overboard and decide to take the taxi home and not back to the workplace, this expense may attract FBT.

Disclaimer

This information is a general advice and is not personal financial or investment advise. No one person should act on the Basis of this information without first obtaining and following the advice of a fully qualified professional.

Call Tax Accountants Cranbourne at 1300 300 106 for further information.