FBT: Buses and Train Fares

Find out which non-car motor vehicles can be exempt under Section 47(6). Why are bus fares exempt but not train fares? What about trams? 

Date published: 21 April 2022

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TRANSCRIPT

Bus Fares and Train Fares 

And then just last week the commissioner issued yet another class ruling. So this isn't brand new as but it's a reminder we could salary sacrifice bus fares directly to and from work, no FBT. Which is great for the people who take busses to and from work. On a train, tough. Sorry, no no luck. 

What happens with trams, trams is an interesting one because that's a motor vehicle but is it for use on the road or does a fact that it runs along tram lines that are embedded in the road, does that disqualify it?

So I'm not aware of the commissioner saying anything on trams, so I wouldn't be looking to salary sacrifice tram costs and certainly can't in my view, salary sacrifice train cost the busses. They're they're a beautiful thing from FBT point of view. So is this a crazy our world we live in? Yeah, but with craziness comes opportunities. 

What’s the Exemption in the FBT Act? 

47(6) with busses, motorbikes, E-bikes, E-scooters, they're all 47(6), they're all motor vehicles just just limited to work related travel. And interestingly the commissioner in the class rulings that this issued in relation to bus travel seems to take a very simplistic, perhaps naive view that it's home to work. Now, interesting issue there. How far do you have to live or can you live from a bus stop before it ceases to be home to work? You have to be within 100 meters of the bus stop or could you walk or ride a bike for two kilometers to the bus stop and it's still home to work.

And similarly, what happens at the other end? What if the bus takes you to a particular place and then you grab a tram the rest of the way? Does that cease to be work related? So these issues which jump out on a really even superficial analysis they're not dealt with in the classrooms. So watch this space. How do you get safety?

Seek a ruling particularly in situations like this, a class ruling, and go build an office near bus line, a bus route?