From 4 February fuel tax credit rates have increased. Check out what you need to know about this increase and more important features of fuel tax credits.
What are fuel tax credits?
Fuel tax credits provide businesses with a credit for the fuel tax (excise or customs) that’s included in the price of the fuel you acquired, manufactured or imported to use in your business for:
Machinery
Plant
Equipment
Heavy vehicles
Light vehicles travelling off public roads or on private roads
Fuel tax credits rates
Fuel tax credits rates change regularly so it’s important to check the rates each time you do your Business Activity Statement (BAS).
Recently, fuel tax credit rates has increased on 4 February 2019 in line with excise indexation. Check out the ATO website to review the updated rates.
Eligibility
Your business needs to be eligible to make a claim for fuel tax credits. This means you must be registered for:
GST when you acquired the fuel. Check out our blog ‘Beginners Guide to GST’.
Fuel tax credits before you can make a claim
The way you claim fuel tax credits is on you Business Activity Statements (BAS). Fuel tax credits are considered as a business income so need to be lodged as well in your Tax Return as ‘Assessable Government Industry Payments’.
Non eligible fuel and activities
Some fuels and activities are not eligible for fuel tax credits such as:
Fuel used in light vehicles of 4.5 tonne gross vehicle mass (GVM) or less travelling on public roads.
Aviation fuels
Alternative fuels (Check out ATO website)
Working out your fuel tax credits
Before claiming fuel tax credits on your BAS, you need to work out your credits and determine what records you need to keep.
The amount you can claim will depend on:
When you acquired the fuel
What fuel you use
The activity you use it for.
Is important to know that separate calculations are required for the different fuel tax credit rates.
Methods to claim your fuel tax credits
If you claim less than $10,000 in fuel tax credits each year, you can use any of the following simplified methods that it’s better for your needs.
1.Use the rate that applies at the end of the BAS period.
When there is a change of the rate during the BAS period, you can calculate your fuel tax credit claim by using the rate that applies at the end of the period.
2.Work out their litres
To work out the quantity of fuel bought in a tax period, you can simply use the total cost of fuel you have purchased in the BAS period, divided by the average price per litre for the BAS period.
3.Simplified record keeping
You can use contractor statement, financial institution statements, point-of-sale docket or fuel supplier statement or invoice to substantiate your claims.
4.Heavy vehicles used mainly off roads
If your vehicle is on the list of heavy vehicles the ATO considers are used mainly off public roads. You can claim all fuel used in these vehicles at the ‘all other business uses’ rate, even if you sometimes drive the vehicle on a public road.
Keeping records
It is important to keep records to work out your fuel tax credits correctly and to support your claims.
Some records you can keep are sales invoices, production records, contracts, driver logbooks, lease documents, tax invoices, receipts, fuel card statements, fuel supplier statements, bank statements, and so on, depending of our specific activity.
We recommend you to take pictures of your receipts, as is a safe way to keep your information.
More Information
We help you to work out if your business activities is eligible and the rates that apply for your fuel tax credit. Also we can help you to lodge correctly the tax credit fuel on your claim. Please, contact our professional team specialized in this area at hello@precent.com.au, or call us to (+ 61) 2 8317 1281.
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