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FBT and Travel (Australia) Procedures

Parent Policy

Fringe Benefits Tax (Australia) Policy

Definition of terms

FBT: Fringe Benefits Tax
OSP: Outside Studies Program
ATO: Australian Taxation Office

Travel Diaries

  • A travel diary must be completed for all overseas travel taken for University business, research or field work. A travel diary must also be completed for all travel within Australia where the trip involves the employee being away from their home for more than 5 consecutive nights.

Responsibility

Employee travelling

  • Where the employee is away for less than or equal to 5 consecutive nights and the trip is not exclusively business an Employee Expense Payment Fringe Benefit Declaration must be completed and forwarded with any Claim Form to Corporate Finance.

Responsibility

Employee travelling

  • A Travel Diary need not be prepared for Monash University where the trip is exclusively on O.S.P. and the funding has been paid directly into the employee's salary. However where the trip is partly O.S.P. and partly business, the business portion must be substantiated by a travel diary.

Responsibility

Employee travelling

  • The travel diary is to be retained and filed by the Department. It is the responsibility of the claimant's department to ensure the travel diary is available for scrutiny as required.
    Where the employee does not provide a travel diary, the expenses incurred cannot be reduced in value and therefore are subject to FBT. In these circumstances the ATO may determine that the trip was taken solely for private purposes. In the event of an audit discovering non-compliance with these ATO rules, any FBT and subsequent penalty, (up to 200% of the tax payable), will be charged directly to the Department concerned.

Responsibility

Departmental Finance Officer

As a minimum a travel diary must show for each business activity: 

  • The place where the activity was taken
  • The date and approximate time when the activity commenced
  • The duration of the activity, and
  • The nature of the activity  

A detailed travel itinerary which includes the above details prepared in advance of the trip would be an acceptable travel diary, provided that the employee endorses that it was followed or records any variations that occurred. Similarly, a detailed conference schedule which includes all the required details would be acceptable where attendance or variation is endorsed by the employee. The endorsement could take the form of a separate confirmation document attached to the schedule or annotation on the original document, both of which should be signed and dated by the employee.

Responsibility

Employee travelling

Private travel and FBT

  • Where the travel has both business and private components, details of the travel must be analysed for any FBT liability. Where private travel (i.e. period of annual leave or LSL) is combined with University business travel and it is considered to be more than incidental to the business travel, the expenditure may incur FBT. A copy of the travel plan/ travel diary must be sent to Corporate Finance for analysis and advice prior to travel.

Responsibility

Employee travelling

  • Where private travel is more than incidental, the travel will be considered to have a dual purpose (business & private) and FBT is applicable on 50% of the airfare in all cases. If the employee travelling contributes 50% of the fare from his/her after tax dollars then the applicable FBT would be reduced to zero. In this case a receipt or other proof of payment must be kept with University records to substantiate FBT reduction. Any expenses relating to the private portion of the trip will also incur FBT if these were paid for by the University (eg. accommodation while holidaying).

Responsibility

Employee travelling/ Corporate Finance

  • Where an employee is contributing to the travel costs originally purchased by Monash University the contribution must be paid via a ROMR costed to GL account 572038, if the original supply included GST then the reimbursement must use tax code S1, if no GST then use tax code S0. Email the details of the payment and receipt to fbt.help@adm.monash.edu.au, quoting the SAP document number of the original expense. Retain a copy of the Student Service Centre receipt to substantiate the FBT reduction in the event of an ATO audit.

Responsibility

Employee travelling/Departmental Finance Officer

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