Skip the gut-feel maths. Tell us about you, the vehicle, and how you'll use it — and we'll show you what it actually costs after tax.
The truth most people miss: "buying through the business" doesn't make a vehicle cheap. Your tax saving is only on the business-use proportion, multiplied by your tax rate, spread over the effective life of the vehicle. Get the structure wrong and you can trigger FBT that wipes out the benefit entirely.
This calculator walks you through the four checks we'd do with you in person — your structure, the vehicle, the cash flow, and how you'll claim it — and shows the real numbers for your situation.
The entity that buys the vehicle changes everything — especially whether FBT applies.
The vehicle type drives the tax limits, the depreciation rate, and whether FBT can be avoided.
The sticker price is rarely the biggest cost. Fuel, insurance, rego, servicing, and finance interest add up fast.
The logbook method almost always beats cents-per-km — but only if you actually keep one.
Before anything else, get honest with yourself: is this car going to genuinely contribute to your business, or is it a lifestyle upgrade you're hoping to dress up as a deduction?
If it's a genuine business decision, the next question is how the car will be used. Will it carry tools, transport stock, get you between worksites or to clients? Good — that justifies the business expense and supports your business-use percentage.
If it's mostly a lifestyle choice, that's also fine — but it means your tax deduction will be modest, FBT might apply if a company or trust owns it, and your business cash flow needs to comfortably absorb the running costs without strain.
The test: would you still buy this same vehicle if there were no tax benefit at all? If yes, proceed. If no, you're likely making the decision for the wrong reason.
If you buy a "car" (less than 1 tonne payload, under 9 passengers), the maximum amount you can use as the depreciation cost base is $69,674. That cap also applies to the GST credit — the maximum GST you can claim is $6,334 (1/11 × $69,674), regardless of how much you actually paid.
So a $90,000 SUV and a $69,674 SUV give you exactly the same tax deductions. The extra $20,326 you spent above the cap is purely out of pocket, with no offset.
This is one reason tradies and businesses needing genuine commercial vehicles often get a better tax outcome — you can buy the workhorse you actually need without losing deductions to the cap.
Fringe Benefits Tax kicks in when an employer provides a vehicle to an employee (including a director) for private use. Critically:
The simplest FBT calculation: taxable value = 20% of the GST-inclusive cost. This taxable value is then grossed up (×2.0802 if GST credits are claimed, ×1.8868 if not) and taxed at the FBT rate of 47%.
A $60,000 car costs you roughly $5,866 in FBT every year under the statutory method — regardless of how much it's actually driven privately.
If business use is high, the operating cost method usually beats the statutory method. It works on actual costs × private-use %, so the higher your business use, the lower your FBT.
Utes, panel vans, and other commercial vehicles can be completely exempt from FBT if private use is limited to:
This is one of the biggest tax breaks available to tradies running a ute. The catch: keep records to prove it, and don't blow the exemption by using it for the weekly grocery run and family holidays.
If a company or trust buys an eligible electric or hydrogen vehicle and provides it to an employee (including a director) for private use, the FBT bill is $0. The cost of charging it, including home electricity, is also exempt. This single rule can save $5,000–$15,000 in FBT per year compared to a petrol equivalent.
From 1 April 2025, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are no longer considered zero or low emissions vehicles. New PHEV acquisitions after that date are not eligible for the FBT exemption. There's grandfathering for PHEVs that were already under a binding financial commitment before that date, but for any decision being made today, treat PHEVs the same as a petrol car for FBT.
Even though the EV is FBT-exempt, the grossed-up value is still reportable on the employee's payment summary. This affects Medicare levy surcharge, HELP/HECS repayment thresholds, family assistance income tests, and child support assessments. It doesn't affect income tax, but for high-value EVs it can have meaningful downstream effects worth modelling before signing.
The combination of full FBT exemption + the deductibility of lease costs makes an EV under a novated lease one of the most tax-effective ways for an employee to access a vehicle. We'll model the specifics for you if it's on the table.
Sort your finance pre-approval before you start shopping. Trying to figure out financing while sitting at a dealer's desk is how people end up signing bad finance contracts to "get the deal done." We can introduce you to brokers we trust who specialise in business vehicle finance.
You can claim 88c per business kilometre, capped at 5,000km per year. That's a maximum deduction of $4,400 per year, no questions asked, no logbook required. The 88c rate is meant to cover everything — fuel, depreciation, insurance, the lot.
Keep a 12-week logbook recording the purpose, date, and kilometres of every trip. At the end of 12 weeks you have a business-use percentage that's valid for 5 years (provided your usage pattern doesn't materially change).
With the logbook locked in, you claim that percentage of every actual cost: depreciation, fuel, insurance, rego, servicing, tyres, interest.
For a typical $50k vehicle with $10k of running costs, the logbook method beats cents-per-km once business use exceeds about 20–25%. For anyone using a vehicle regularly for business, the logbook is almost always worth it. The hesitation is usually about effort — but 12 weeks of phone-app logbook entries is genuinely not a big deal compared to thousands of dollars of extra deductions.
If you have employees who'd like a vehicle as part of their package, salary sacrifice or a novated lease can be a powerful incentive. The employee gives up pre-tax salary in exchange for a vehicle paid for through the business. Done correctly, both the employer and employee save.
It's also where many businesses get the FBT calculations wrong. There's specific documentation that needs to be in place before the salary sacrifice arrangement starts, and the running costs all need to flow through correctly.
If you or an employee is considering this route, talk to us first. We'll work out whether it stacks up financially, model the cash flow impact for both sides, and set up the arrangement properly.
This calculator gives you the shape of the decision. We can help you work out the right structure, finance, and FBT strategy — and set it all up properly before you sign.
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