INTRODUCING MAXXIA MYCAR A GUIDE TO NOVATED LEASING AND SALARY PACKAGING THE CAR YOU WANT

Transcription

1 INTRODUCING MAXXIA MYCAR A GUIDE TO NOVATED LEASING AND SALARY PACKAGING THE CAR YOU WANT X Communication Plan (0909) Maxxia Pty Ltd

2 Have you thought about buying a car and wondered if a novated lease is for you? We know that cars depreciate in value as soon as they leave the sales yard. But for most of us a car is a necessity and it s nice to have a change of car. So, if you ve decided to buy a car it s worth investigating the ways you can drive down the cost of operating it? One of those ways is to include the car in your salary via a novated lease giving you the opportunity to obtain benefits that cannot be obtained by buying the car through traditional means. In many cases, it may be both cost and tax effective to have a motor vehicle as part of remuneration due to the concessional treatment under tax legislation So, what are the benefits? 1. The car is financed exempt of GST where the car is purchased from a car dealer. This is a potential saving of thousands of dollars up front depending on the cost of the vehicle. Even if you re planning to buy a pre owned car from a dealer the same applies. 2. The car repayments and costs of operating the car are made by way of a deduction from your salary each payday with pre tax or a combination of pre and after tax salary therefore reducing your PAYG tax. 3. You also recover the GST on operating costs of the car where GST applies (for example, fuel) and where your employer allows. This has the potential to drive down the cost of running the car significantly. 4. If you re buying a new car, MAXXIA MYCAR can assist you to secure discounted pricing using our complimentary procurement service (or you can of course source the car yourself). We ve helped hundreds of people secure discounts that would not be normally available to individuals. 5. MAXXIA MYCAR can organise competitive finance rates. So, we can assist you all the way through the process which makes it so much more convenient for you. 6. You can choose the car you want subject to your employer s policy & ensuring repayments can be managed within your overall budget. 7. A novated lease is fully portable in the event that you change employment and the new employer allows novated leases. What does this mean in actual tax savings? For example, salary package a car to the value of $34,000 on a 4 year lease term with a 35% residual and travel 15,000km a year the potential tax benefit each year is: Annual Salary Annual benefit Assumptions apply. Ask your Maxxia representative to do a quick quote to show you how you may benefit. But, is a novated lease for you? Answering yes to these three questions gets you off to a good start: 1. Do you want or need a car? Obviously a novated lease can only be of benefit to you if you are actually interested in purchasing a car. Maybe you re looking for a family car or perhaps fuel costs are foremost in your mind or you may even be thinking about leasing the car you currently own. 2. Do you want or need to take a loan for the purchase of the car? Not a lot of us have spare cash to purchase a vehicle outright. A novated lease provides many Australians with the option to gain benefits that may not be available through other forms of financing. 3. Is the car used for private use? Benefit over the lease term $40,000 $2,688 $10,752 $60,000 $2,826 $11,304 $85,000 $3,326 $13,304 $115,000 $3,518 $14,072 Keeping in mind that driving your vehicle to and from your workplace everyday is considered private use and of course using it on weekend s means most Australian employees mainly use their vehicle for private purposes.

3 If you re in the market for a car it may be worth investigating a novated lease because it allows you to: Pay no GST on the purchase of the car Pay for the car with some pre-tax salary. Recover GST on running costs. But, as with anything, attractive tax benefits aren t of any use if you can t afford the purchase in the first place. It makes sense to ensure that the car you want to buy fits within your budget and that you have enough cash to support the other financial commitments in your life. This of course is no less than you would do if buying a car by any other means. So, 2 fundamental rules that will allow you to enjoy the benefits of a novated lease are: 1. Buy a car that fits within yours or your families budget 2. Be conservative about how many kilometres you think the car would travel per year. (You ll learn more about why this is important further on in this guide). Who uses a novated lease? There are many thousands of employees across Australia from all walks of life and varying salary levels (large and small private companies, local federal and state government) that use novated leases as part of their salary packaging. A novated lease is a simple structure, works easily, and may be tax effective. But more importantly, it s all above board. WHAT CARS QUALIFY? A new car Clearly a new car is eligible but motor bikes, caravans, boats, trucks and industrial items like tractors etc are not eligible. A pre owned car The pre owned car should be no older than 7 years of age at the end of the lease term. (Lease terms Can be 1,2,3,4 or 5 years). For example, a 4-yearold vehicle can be packaged over a 3 year lease. It may even be the car you re driving now It can even be the car you are driving right now. If you bought a car in the recent past and either financed its purchase or even if you own it outright then it may be worth investigating if a novated lease would work for you. I HAVE TO DO A NOVATED LEASE. WHAT S A NOVATED LEASE? There are basically two parts: 1. Arranging the finance for the car. 2. Then setting up salary packaging for the car. These come together with a document called a Deed of Novation which is simply an agreement between the financier, your employer and you, where you have ultimate responsibility for and effective control over the car. You keep the car even if you move to another employer. The car is intended for private use. The deed of novation is often referred to as a novated lease. The word Novated simply means, passing across. In this case passing across the obligations of the lease to your employer while that employer employs you. HOW DOES A NOVATED LEASE WORK? The process is very simple. The car is leased from the financier using a standard finance lease. A Deed of Novation is entered into between yourself, the employer and the financier where your obligations to pay the lease payments and other obligations under the finance lease are transferred to the employer for the term of the Deed of novation. The employer makes the lease payments and then recoups those payments from your salary through salary packaging. The total of all the operating costs are also deducted from your salary. HOW THE SALARY PACKAGING WORKS? In the first instance Maxxia will prepare a no cost salary packaging proposal for you that will provide you with the financial information you ll need in order to decide if salary packaging a car is for you. Part of that proposal will tell you how much would be deducted from your pay. What you ll notice is that the deduction will show a pre tax amount and after tax amount. That s because the car is salary packaged via the ATO approved method called The Employee Contribution Method (ECM). Here s how it works

4 THE EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTION METHOD Under this method the repayments and all running costs are paid with a combination of pre tax and after tax salary. These two amounts are calculated in the budget we prepare for you and appear as separate items on your payslip when you start salary packaging. Why some after tax salary? The Australian Tax Office has determined that where an employee contributes a certain amount of after tax salary toward the cost of the car, the liability for Fringe Benefits Tax, FBT, (which is normally payable on the car) is reduced to NIL. So in effect what s happening is that you re offsetting the Fringe Benefits Tax that normally would have to be paid with some of your salary that has been taxed at your marginal tax rate not at the rate at which FBT is charged which is 46.5%, the highest tax rate. How much after tax salary is used and how much is pre tax? This is determined by a specific calculation (we do these calculations in your proposal). Basically it s taking the base price of the car & multiplying it by a statutory percentage. The percentage is directly related to the number of kilometres that you travel in the car each year. To clarify that let s look at an example: Let s say the cars base value is $20,000 & you travel 16,000km a year. The statutory percentage would be 20% as indicated by the chart: Km s per year Statutory % Less than 15,000 kms 26% 15,000 kms to 24,999 kms 20% 25,000 kms to 40,000kms 11% Over 40,000 kms 7% The amount of after tax salary contributed to this car over the year to reduce the FBT to nil is $4,000, ($20,000 x 20% = $4,000). This is equivalent to what s called the taxable value of the car). The car for example may cost a total of say $10,000 for the year including lease payments & running costs of which $4,000 would come from after tax salary $6,000 would come from pre tax salary. But let s say you do 25,000 km per year. The calculation is now $20,000 x 11% = $2,200. So in this example, of the $10,000 it may cost to operate this car $2,200 would come from tax paid salary and $7,800 from pre tax salary. Someone travelling in the higher km brackets would therefore gain a larger benefit. HOW THE CAR IS FINANCED A salary packaged car is financed through a finance lease. In practice a finance lease is very similar to a car loan. The financier provides the capital to purchase the vehicle just as if you had taken out a personal loan. Over the term of the lease (can be 1 to 5 years); the financier is repaid the cost of the car plus interest. The following chart sets out the lease terms and approximate residual amounts: Lease Terms Minimum residuals 12 Months 65% 24 Months 55% 36 Months 45% 48 Months 35% 60 Months 25% What is a Residual? A finance lease assumes that at the end of the lease term a pre set value would be achieved on the car. This is called a residual. An amount that the tax office assesses would be the approximate market value of the car at the end of the lease term. Residual values on a lease agreement are determined in accordance with ATO Interpretative Decision 2002/ What can I do about the residual at lease end? At the conclusion of a lease, you may wish to submit an offer to purchase the vehicle at the residual price contained in your finance agreement. The options you have are: Sell the car privately, pay out the residual. Re-finance the residual and continue to package the car. Trade the car in, pay out the residual and package the new car. You could stop salary packaging the car and simply refinance the residual. Or, simply pay out the residual with cash if you wish. It is important to note that you are responsible for the lease at lease end.

5 What about buying fuel, servicing, registration & insurance when they re due? When you salary package a car under MAXXIA MYCAR S fully maintained program we provide you with a Fleet card that s used for the payment of scheduled and unscheduled servicing and maintenance of your vehicle. We also provide a choice of petrol cards. It s necessary for you to advise your service provider prior to the commencement of any work that you intend to pay for the service with the Fleet card. This enables the service provider to ensure they have approval for the service to be completed and that the appropriate discounts are applied. By utilising this system correctly, you re not required to keep receipts and claim reimbursements for any fuel or servicing costs. Your Fleet card is sent to your home address by post on the day of settlement. When registration & insurance fall due you simply send them to us when they arrive at your home and we ll pay them for you from your salary packaging funds. IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER 1. Ensure the car fits within your budget. All the tax savings in the world won t help if the car is not affordable. 2. Be conservative about the number of kilometres that you think you would travel in the car each year because if you do not fall into the km range that you nominate and drop back to a lower bracket during the year you may incur a fringe benefits tax shortfall and will then need to pay back that shortfall. 3. The salary packaging or FBT year starts on 1st April & extends to 31st March of the following year. 4. You re required to provide odometer declarations during the year and at the end of year. We let you know in writing when they are required to be lodged. 5. Distance travelled is assessed on a pro-rata basis per year. eg, if you take delivery of your car on 1 October and have nominated 25,000 kilometres as your annual distance, you must travel at least 12,500 kilometres by 31 March of the next year. MAXXIA MYCAR: A UNIQUE ONE STOP SHOP SERVICE. Our fully maintained novated lease program offers a complete service including vehicle sourcing, arranging finance, repairs and maintenance. We take care of the paperwork, removing the hassle for you. Personalised: A dedicated Maxxia consultant is assigned to you. The leasing consultant will guide you through the process all the way through to picking up their new car. Preferred vehicle pricing: We will find a competitive deal on your choice of vehicle from our national network of dealers. Handy fuel cards: We offer a choice of fuel cards so you can salary package fuel easily. Enjoy discounted operating costs: You enjoy competitive prices on maintenance, tyres and repairs through our national network of suppliers. Service pre-authorisation: Our experienced maintenance team will review and authorise each service quote before the service is completed, so you can be sure you receive fleet discounts and are not charged for warranty work. No surprise payout figure: The residual figure is set at the outset, so you know what to expect at the end of the lease term. Online access for convenience: You can access your statement online on our secure website Expense management: We develop a comprehensive budget for you, including lease payments, registration, fuel, insurance, servicing, roadside assistance and maintenance. Above all not only can we assist you through the process finding, funding and completing the novated lease documentation, we also then do the salary packaging of the arrangement. In other words you only have to deal with one organisation to have everything arranged.

6 THE NEXT STEP IF YOU D LIKE TO INVESTIGATE A NOVATED LEASE. Once you ve decided to buy a car and want to investigate the benefits of salary packaging the car, you ll want to know the figures. For example, what s the impact on take home pay, how much will you save, what are the lease payments & budgeted running costs? GETTING STARTED If you wish, you can contact your local Maxxia representative and arrange a no cost one on one meeting where that s possible. Your representative will do figures in front of you around the car of your choice and lease term so that you gain a good idea of the benefit to you. Or, simply ask your local Maxxia representative for a novated lease request form. The form asks for some details about the car and other information that will help us do the figures for you. Then fax or the completed form to your representative. There s no obligation, cost or commitment in having the proposal prepared. It s an essential document so that you can make an informed decision as to whether salary packaging your car is suitable for you. YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE IS Name: James Travis Phone: Fax: Mobile: james.travis@maxxia.com.au IN SUMMARY, WHY A NOVATED LEASE? VALUE EASE Pay with pre-tax $ Competitive vehicle pricing No GST on vehicle purchase Recover GST on running costs Discounted servicing Personal help from our consultants A comprehensive budget One stop shop No need to visit car yards Great ongoing support NEED AN INTERPRETER? Maxxia also offers a Telephone Interpreting Service (TIS). If you need to talk with us and have difficulty speaking or understanding English, call the Telephone Interpreter Service on and ask them to call Maxxia on , between 8.00am-7.00pm (EDST). TIS provides a service for over 100 languages. For further information about the benefits you can salary package, simply visit our website at Important information: The supply of salary packaging services is subject to Maxxia s Pty Ltd terms and conditions (available from or by calling us on ), finance approval and conditions and the terms of your employer s Salary Packaging Policy. Fees and charges apply. In the examples PAYG tax rates effective 1 July 2009 have been used, and Fees and Charges are excluded. Tax, benefit and Medicare levy calculations are approximate, and assume no other taxable income is received. HECS/HELP repayments and taxation surcharges are excluded. The information provided in this document is factual information only and has been prepared without consideration of your personal circumstances. Maxxia Pty Ltd does not provide you with any form of financial, taxation or financial product advice on the relative merits of salary packaging programs or on any other basis. You should seek your own independent professional advice before making a decision with respect to salary packaging or novated leasing. Maxxia Pty Ltd may receive commissions or rebates in connection with some services it provides or arranges to be provided by third parties. Assumptions Novated Lease example: The estimated potential tax benefit is based on the assumption that you would have paid for the lease from your post-tax salary (as opposed to salary packaging those payments from your pre-tax salary or a combination of your pre and post-tax salary). The estimated annual benefit will vary depending upon salary, employment circumstances, selected benefits and applicable tax treatment. Maxxia Pty Ltd ABN Authorised Representative (No ) of McMillan Shakespeare Limited (AFSL No ) Locked Bag 18, Collins Street East, Melbourne VIC 8003 P: F: E: info@maxxia.com.au W: