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Edited version of private ruling
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Ruling
Subject: Salary sacrifice
Are you able to salary sacrifice executive vehicle scheme payments that are being paid late by your employer?
No.
This ruling applies for the following period:
Year ended 30 June 2010
The scheme commences on:
1 July 2008
Relevant facts and circumstances
This ruling is based on the facts stated in the description of the scheme that is set out below. If your circumstances are materially different from these facts, this ruling has no effect and you cannot rely on it. The fact sheet has more information about relying on your private ruling.
You received payments from your employer.
You did not have a salary sacrifice arrangement in place to deal with those payments
Your employer advised you that it upgraded its computer system and that during the migration of data from the legacy system to the upgraded system, payments under the scheme to you inadvertently ceased.
You were posted overseas by your employer and were in receipt of fluctuating overseas allowances and were unaware that these payments had ceased.
Your employer is currently holding these payments.
Relevant legislative provisions
Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Section 6-5
Reasons for decision
While these reasons are not part of the private ruling, we provide them to help you to understand how we reached our decision.
Taxation ruling 2001/10 considers the requirements for an effective salary sacrifice arrangement.
These requirements are:
a. There should be an agreement between the employer and employee
b. There should be no access to the sacrificed salary
c. The agreement must be in effect before the services are performed.
If the arrangement is put into place after the work has been performed the salary sacrifice arrangement will be ineffective.
In your case the services have been performed and an effective salary sacrifice arrangement cannot be entered into.
It is acknowledged that you believe a mistake has occurred in that your employer inadvertently ceased making the payments.
As there was no salary sacrifice arrangement in place before the services were provided, the payments would not have been able to be salary sacrificed even if they had have been paid when you were entitled to receive them.
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