Issued by authority of the Minister for Revenue
and Assistant Treasurer

Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986

Fringe Benefits Tax Amendment Regulations 2006 (No. 3)

Section 135 of the Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The purpose of these amending Regulations is to prescribe two funds for the purposes of paragraph 58PB(2)(a) of the Act as approved worker entitlement funds. A worker entitlement fund is a fund that provides for the protection and portability of employee entitlements, such as unused leave or redundancy payments.

Sections 58PA and 58PB of the Act provide an exemption from fringe benefits tax (FBT) for certain payments to approved worker entitlement funds. This exemption is designed to ensure that certain payments to approved worker entitlement funds are not taxed twice — once as a fringe benefit when paid into the fund and again when paid out of the fund to the employee.

The Regulations commenced on 9 October 2006 and apply to the remainder of the 2006-07 FBT year and later years.

Consultation was not undertaken in relation to this instrument because it was minor or machinery in nature and did not substantially change the law.