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Living Away From Home Expenses
Available to all employees who are required to live away from home for work purposes – see below for more details.
A little extra help
If your employer requires you to temporarily live away from home for work purposes, and you incur expenses in doing so that your employer hasn’t reimbursed you for, you can salary package the amounts saving on both income tax and GST.
A little extra help
If you didn’t think living away from home expenses could be part of a salary package, think again. If you are living away from home for work for 12 months or less, it can be done. There are a number of factors to consider however, the first of which is that your eligibility must be determined by your employer, so you’ll first need to contact your HR department.
It’s likely your employer will expect you to be able to show:
· You have a usual place of residence in Australia at which you would normally reside, and at which you would have continued to reside, had the circumstances of your employment not caused you to move elsewhere.
· The move away from your usual place of residence is for a minimum of 21 calendar days, and for the purpose of performing employment duties at a new work location for your current employer.
· That the arrangement is for a maximum of 12 months after which you will return to your usual place of residence.
· Your usual place of residence will remain available to you at all times during the period that you’re living in the temporary work location (that is, it won’t be rented out or otherwise be unavailable for your sole and immediate use).
Once you have commenced packaging this item, if your circumstances change (you sell your home, change employers, or become aware of an extension beyond the 12 months), you must inform us immediately as these things will affect your continued eligibility.
What you need to do, and what you should know:
· Mortgage repayments.
· Confirm with your HR department that you are eligible to claim living away from home expenses.
· Complete a claim form and return to us with a copy of your lease agreement in the new location.
· Submit a claim form to us and attach the form and agreement.
· We will arrange for your employer to deduct the amount from your pre-tax salary.
· We will arrange for the full amount to be transferred back to you.
· You thus save on income tax.
· Depending on the amount, we may be able to spread the deductions over several pay periods to help you out.
How Much Could I Save With Salary Packaging?
Using your pre-tax salary to pay for things allows you to increase your disposable income and pay less tax – often thousands of dollars less each year. There are dozens of items you can potentially salary package, but some depend on your employer and the industry they work in.
It’s all fully approved by the Australian Taxation Office, however it pays to seek specialist clarification from us to ensure you gain everything you’re entitled to, and make the process of setting up your package easy. You can use our calculators for indicative savings, or talk to us today to find out more and the next steps to take towards saving!
Calculate Your Savings
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