Guide · 2026-27

Novated Lease FBT, and How It Is Actually Calculated

Fringe benefits tax is what decides whether a novated lease is worth doing. This is the arithmetic: the 47% rate, the two gross-up rates, the 20% statutory formula, and the electric car exemption that makes the whole thing work.

FBT rate 47%Gross-up 2.0802 / 1.8868EV exemption rulesFBT year to 31 March 2027

Written by Marcus Kelleher, Editor, pay and tax content. Figures from the ATO fringe benefits tax rates and thresholds (updated 20 May 2026) and luxury car tax thresholds (updated 1 June 2026). Last verified 30 July 2026.

Disclaimer: This calculator provides general estimates, not personal tax or financial advice. Figures use published ATO rates for 2026-27 and may not match your exact situation, offsets or deductions. Do not act on these results alone. For official guidance, visit the ATO, or speak to a registered tax agent.

On an ordinary petrol car with a base value of $60,000, the employer’s FBT for a full year is $11,732.33. That is almost exactly 20% of the car’s value, every year, and it is why a non-electric novated lease so often fails to pay off.
The calculation

How FBT on a Car Is Worked Out

Three numbers: a taxable value, a gross-up rate, and the FBT rate.

FBT is paid by the employer, not by you, but it is funded out of your package, so it is your problem in every practical sense. Under the statutory formula method the taxable value of a car fringe benefit is a flat 20% of the car’s base value. That has applied to all car fringe benefits provided since 1 April 2014, regardless of how far the car is driven.

The taxable value is then grossed up, to reflect the pre-tax income the employee would have needed to buy the benefit themselves, and the 47% FBT rate is applied to the grossed-up figure.

StepCalculationResult on a $60,000 car
Taxable value20% of the base value$12,000
Grossed-up valueTaxable value x 2.0802 (Type 1)$24,962.40
FBT payableGrossed-up value x 47%$11,732.33

Worked example computed from the ATO rates. It shows the mechanism only: a real quote also involves the employee contribution method, GST handling, the lease residual and provider fees.

The reason this matters is the multiplier. 2.0802 multiplied by 47% is 0.9777, which is so close to 1 that the FBT payable is effectively equal to the taxable value. So the employer’s annual FBT bill on a non-exempt car is about 20% of the car’s value, forever. The income tax you save by paying for the car pre-tax has to beat that, and on an ordinary car it frequently does not.

Two rates, one confusion

Why There Are Two Gross-Up Rates

TypeWhen it appliesRate
Type 1, higherThe benefit provider can claim a GST credit on providing the benefit. Normal for a novated lease through a GST-registered employer.2.0802
Type 2, lowerNo GST credit is available. Also used for every reportable amount on your income statement, whatever the underlying benefit type.1.8868

Source: ATO, Fringe benefits tax rates and thresholds. Both rates have been unchanged for every FBT year ending 31 March 2023 to 31 March 2027.

Which one applies is the employer’s question, not yours. The part that reaches you is the second sentence of the Type 2 row: your income statement always uses 1.8868, so the reported figure is larger than the taxable value it came from.

The exemption that changed everything

When an Electric Car Is Exempt From FBT

Three conditions, and all three have to hold.

  1. It is a zero or low emissions car. A battery electric vehicle or a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle. It must be a car: under 1 tonne carrying capacity and fewer than 9 seats. Motorcycles and scooters do not qualify. Plug-in hybrids stopped being eligible on 1 April 2025, with limited transitional continuation for arrangements already in place.
  2. It was first held and first used on or after 1 July 2022. Both, not either. A car built earlier but first used after that date can qualify; a car first used before it cannot.
  3. Luxury car tax has never been payable on it. In practice its value has to have been under the LCT threshold for fuel-efficient vehicles when first sold, and on any later sale. For 2026-27 that threshold is $91,661, against $80,809 for other vehicles.

Where all three hold, the private use of the car and its associated running costs are exempt from FBT: registration, insurance, repairs, maintenance, and the electricity or fuel used to charge it. That is what lets an EV novated lease run effectively from pre-tax salary, and it is the whole reason EV packaging took off.

Financial yearLCT threshold, fuel-efficientLCT threshold, other vehicles
2026-27$91,661$80,809
2025-26$91,387$80,567
2024-25$91,387$80,567
2023-24$89,332$76,950

Source: ATO, Luxury car tax rate and thresholds, updated 1 June 2026. From 1 July 2025 the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Incentives and Integrity) Act 2025 changed the definition of a fuel-efficient vehicle and aligned the indexation of both thresholds.

The catch nobody mentions

An FBT-Exempt Car Is Still Reportable

Exempt from FBT does not mean invisible. An eligible electric car provided under a novated lease is still a reportable fringe benefit. It appears on your income statement, and reportable amounts feed into things that are income-tested:

  • the Medicare levy surcharge
  • the private health insurance rebate
  • some family assistance payments
  • your HELP repayment income, if you have a study loan

Reporting kicks in once the total taxable value of your reportable benefits exceeds $2,000 in the FBT year, and the figure shown is grossed up at the Type 2 rate of 1.8868. The ATO’s own example is that a taxable value of $2,000.01 becomes a reportable amount of $3,773.

Applied to the $60,000 car above, a notional taxable value of $12,000 grossed up at 1.8868 is a reportable amount of about $22,641.60. The exact figure depends on how your employer values the benefit and on any employee contributions, but the order of magnitude is the point: no FBT is charged, and a five-figure amount can still land on your income statement. If you have a study loan, the HECS-HELP repayment calculator shows how repayment income drives the repayment rate, and the Medicare levy surcharge calculator shows where the surcharge tiers begin.

The other method

Statutory Formula or Operating Cost

The 20% statutory formula is one of two ways to value a car fringe benefit. The alternative is the operating cost method, which works from the car’s actual running costs and the proportion of business use, and it tends to win where business use is high and lose where the car is mostly private.

Two ATO figures feed the operating cost calculation for 2026-27: deemed depreciation of 25% on a diminishing value basis, for cars purchased on or after 10 May 2006, and a statutory or benchmark interest rate of 8.27% for the FBT year ending 31 March 2027. For home charging of an electric car, PCG 2024/2 allows a set rate of 5.47 cents per kilometre from 1 April 2026, up from 4.2 cents in earlier years.

The employer chooses the method, not the employee. It is worth asking which one your packaging provider has assumed, because it changes the taxable value and therefore what comes out of your salary.

Who gets the best deal

Hospital and Charity Employees Are in a Different Position

Some employers have FBT concessions that change the maths entirely, which is why packaging is common in health and the not-for-profit sector and rare elsewhere.

Employer typeConcession, FBT years to 31 March 2027
Public benevolent institutions other than public hospitals, and health promotion charitiesFBT exemption capped at $30,000 of grossed-up value
Public hospitals, not-for-profit hospitals, public ambulance servicesFBT exemption capped at $17,000 of grossed-up value
Rebatable employers: certain registered charities and non-government not-for-profitsFBT rebate of 47% capped at $30,000

Packaged meal entertainment and entertainment facility leasing is separately capped at $5,000 for all three categories. Source: ATO, Fringe benefits tax rates and thresholds.

To model what packaging does to your own take-home pay, use the salary packaging calculator. For the simpler and usually better-value option of sacrificing into super instead, see the salary sacrifice calculator and how salary sacrifice into super works.

The honest answer

Is a Novated Lease Worth It?

For an eligible electric car, often yes, because the FBT that would otherwise consume the benefit is nil and the running costs come out of pre-tax salary. For an ordinary petrol or diesel car, usually much less so, for the reason set out at the top: the employer’s FBT is roughly 20% of the car’s value every year.

Two caveats worth weighing before signing. The exemption is under review by mid-2027, and plug-in hybrids already lost eligibility on 1 April 2025, so the scope has been narrowed once already. A novated lease typically runs three to five years, which means a lease signed now can outlive the rules it was justified by.

FBT is genuinely complicated, the employer controls the valuation method, and the numbers in a provider’s quote depend on assumptions you cannot see. Get the quote modelled on your own salary and have a registered tax agent check it before you commit. For background on packaging generally, see how a novated lease works and salary packaging explained.

Questions

Novated Lease FBT FAQ

Under the statutory formula method the taxable value is 20% of the car's base value, and the FBT payable is that taxable value multiplied by the gross-up rate and then by the 47% FBT rate. For a car with a base value of $60,000 the taxable value is $12,000, and at the Type 1 gross-up rate of 2.0802 the FBT is $11,732.33 for a full FBT year. Because 2.0802 multiplied by 47% comes to 0.9777, the FBT bill is almost exactly the same as the taxable value, which is the single most important thing to understand about packaging an ordinary car.
The FBT rate is 47%, and it has been 47% for every FBT year ending 31 March 2023 through to 31 March 2027. The FBT year runs from 1 April to 31 March, so it does not line up with the income year that ends 30 June. A novated lease started in May sits in a different FBT year from the income year most people are thinking about, which is a common source of confusion when reconciling an income statement.
All three conditions must hold. First, it is a battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, and it is a car, meaning under 1 tonne carrying capacity and fewer than 9 seats, so motorcycles and scooters are out. Second, it was first held and first used on or after 1 July 2022. Third, luxury car tax has never been payable on it, which in practice means its value was under the LCT threshold for fuel-efficient vehicles, $91,661 for 2026-27, when first sold and on any later sale. Plug-in hybrids stopped qualifying from 1 April 2025, apart from limited transitional continuation for arrangements already in place.
The FBT is nil, but the benefit is still a reportable fringe benefit. It appears on your income statement, and reportable amounts feed into income-tested outcomes: the Medicare levy surcharge, the private health insurance rebate, some family payments, and your HELP repayment income. So an FBT-exempt EV can still increase what you pay or reduce what you receive elsewhere, without any FBT being charged. This is the consequence most often missed when an EV lease is being sold on the tax saving alone.
The exemption covers the private use of the eligible car and its associated running costs: registration, insurance, repairs, maintenance, and the electricity or fuel used to charge it. For home charging, the ATO practical compliance guideline PCG 2024/2 lets you use a set rate of 5.47 cents per kilometre for the FBT year starting 1 April 2026, up from 4.2 cents for earlier years. The choice is made per vehicle and applies for the whole year, and the alternative is to work out the actual cost of the electricity.
There are two. The Type 1 rate of 2.0802 applies where the benefit provider can claim a GST credit on providing the benefit, which is the normal case for a novated lease through a GST-registered employer. The Type 2 rate of 1.8868 applies where no GST credit is available. The distinction is the employer's, not yours. One thing to note: all reportable fringe benefit amounts on your income statement are grossed up at the lower Type 2 rate of 1.8868, whether the underlying benefit was Type 1 or Type 2.
When the total taxable value of your reportable fringe benefits exceeds $2,000 in the FBT year. The amount shown is grossed up at the Type 2 rate, so the ATO's own example is that a taxable value of $2,000.01 becomes a reportable amount of $3,773. The reported figure is therefore always noticeably larger than the taxable value it came from, which surprises people the first time they see it.
Usually much less so, and the arithmetic above is why: the employer's FBT on an ordinary car is roughly 20% of the car's value every year, which can cancel out the income-tax saving from paying for the car with pre-tax salary. Packaging providers reduce it using the employee contribution method, where you pay part of the running costs from post-tax salary to bring the taxable value down. Whether the result is still worthwhile depends on your marginal rate, the lease term, the residual and the provider's fees, so get a quote modelled on your own numbers and have a registered tax agent check it.
Significantly. Public benevolent institutions other than public hospitals, and health promotion charities, have an FBT exemption capped at $30,000 of grossed-up value. Public hospitals, not-for-profit hospitals and public ambulance services have a cap of $17,000. Rebatable employers, including certain registered charities and non-government not-for-profits, get a 47% rebate capped at $30,000. Separately, packaged meal entertainment and entertainment facility leasing is capped at $5,000. This is why packaging is far more valuable for hospital and charity staff than for most private-sector employees.
It is not guaranteed. The government has committed to reviewing the exemption by mid-2027. Plug-in hybrids already lost eligibility from 1 April 2025, which shows the scope can be narrowed. A novated lease usually runs for three to five years, so a lease signed now may outlive the current rules. Any decision should assume the benefit could change and should not depend on the exemption surviving for the full term.
Sources

Sources for This Page

  • ATO, Fringe benefits tax rates and thresholds, last updated 20 May 2026: FBT rate, gross-up rates, reportable thresholds, statutory formula rate, deemed depreciation, benchmark interest rate, EV home charging rate, concession caps.
  • ATO, Luxury car tax rate and thresholds, last updated 1 June 2026: the fuel-efficient vehicle thresholds that decide electric car exemption eligibility.
  • ATO, Electric cars exemption, last updated 1 April 2026: the three eligibility conditions, covered running costs, PHEV cut-off, and reportable treatment.
  • ATO, Fringe benefits tax, a guide for employers, chapters 7.8 and 7.9: statutory formula and operating cost methods.
  • ATO, PCG 2024/2, Electric vehicle home charging rate.
  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Incentives and Integrity) Act 2025: the change to the fuel-efficient vehicle definition from 1 July 2025.
  • Moneysmart (ASIC), Salary packaging.

All sources accessed 30 July 2026.