Reportable Fringe Benefits: What They Change for You

How the amount is worked out

The employer adds up the taxable values of the reportable benefits it gave you between 1 April and 31 March. If the total exceeds $2 000, the whole total is multiplied by 1.8868, the lower gross-up rate, whatever rate was used for the FBT itself. The result appears on the income statement for the financial year ending the following 30 June. In the ATO's Child Care Subsidy example, benefits of $3 500 and $1 000 make $4 500 of taxable value and a reported $8 490.

Where it counts

Two worked cases

HELP. The ATO's example has a taxable income of $70 000 and $17 000 of reportable fringe benefits. Repayment income is $87 000. At 2026-27 rates the compulsory repayment goes from $71 on taxable income alone to $2 621.

Surcharge. A charity worker without private hospital cover, with a taxable income of $98 000 after packaging $15 900, has $30 000 reported. Income for surcharge purposes becomes $128 000, above the first surcharge threshold, and the surcharge goes from $0 to $1 600 a year. A basic hospital policy can cost less than that.

Mismatched years: FBT year against income year

Reportable fringe benefits are measured over the FBT year, from 1 April to 31 March, but they appear on the income statement of the financial year that ends three months later. Benefits received from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 are reported with your 2026-27 income, alongside salary paid from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. Someone who starts packaging in May sees almost a full year of benefits on the first income statement; someone who stops in February sees them on the statement for the year in which that February falls. If you plan around an income threshold for HELP or the surcharge, line up the two calendars before deciding when to start or stop.

Checking the figure on your income statement

• Packaged amount × 1.8868. Divide the reported figure by 1.8868: the result should match what your provider says you packaged between 1 April and 31 March.
• Car under a novated lease. With full employee contributions the reported amount should be nil; with an exempt electric car it should be about 37.7% of the car's base value (20% × 1.8868).
• Two employers. Each reports its own benefits; the tax return adds them.
• Wrong figure. Ask the employer to correct the income statement before you lodge; the ATO pre-fills whatever the employer reported.

To see the reportable amount produced by a particular arrangement, use the salary packaging calculator, the novated lease calculator or the FBT calculator.