Fringe Benefits Tax

Abstract

A‘fringe benefit’ is described as a benefit other than salary and wages accruing to a person because of an employment relationship. Taxation law assesses employees on cash payments of salary and wages and similar amounts received as a result of employment. However, prior to 1 July 1986, significant difficulty was encountered in assessing non-cash benefits provided to employees and even greater difficulty in assessing associates of employees on benefits received from employers. Fringe benefits tax (‘FBT’) was implemented from 1 July 1986 to combat this difficulty. This chapter provides a full analysis of the operation of fringe benefits tax to commercial transactions in Australia.