George Lombard

Hi Alan,

I think I'll need to correct some misimpressions in this long thread which I
have just about entirely missed. Sorry for the late arrival :-(

First, in practice, most sponsoring businesses just make it a term of their
contract with the employee that the employee obtain health insurance (see
Tina's contribution below). Second, I have never seen any employer forced
to honour the form 1067 obligation for repatriation costs. DIMIA officers
generally concede that this is an empty obligation.

Cheers

George Lombard
--
www.austimmigration.com.au


"Alan Collett" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:417248.1032236572@britishexpats-
.com...
    > In answer to your last question - yes, that's correct.
    > Regards.
    > Originally posted by onlyme:
    > > Thank Alan. Apologies for dragging you into my dispute.
    > >
    > > When you say "The employer is also responsible for any repatriation
    > > costs that DIMIA might incur if the sponsored individual stays on in
    > > Australia beyond the term of the visa (including if it is cancelled)."
    > >
    > The repatriation costs are also for DIMA ? They wouldn't have to give me
    > relocation costs ? Do you mean if DIMA had to deport me because I
    > overstayed the 28 days allowable on a cancelled temp visa, my compay
    > would have to reimburse them ?
    > --
    > Alan Collett of Go Matilda,
    > http://www.gomatilda.com
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Alan Collett

What "misimpressions" are you referring to George? This from one of my posts on this thread on the main point at issue, namely the medical insurance situation with 457-visa holders:

"As to you having had to arrange your own insurance - this may well have been a condition of the agency agreeing to sponsor you. And as I said above, it isn't a requirement placed on them by DIMIA."

This seems not overly dissimilar to your comment.

Best regards.

percyp

How about this then.....
Agreed with my employer I would pay the cost of private medical cover for the duration of my 457. They said it would be $290.20 per month (for a couple), ok. Today they tell me this is subject to FBT, so $290.20 x 12 +98%FBT = $6895 pa. I asked how this could be a fringe benefit if I was paying. They said they were paying, but my salary is still reduced by this amount.
Can't complain, otherwise they wont sponsor me, and they didn't want to know other options !

shorrock

As this is an FBT paid for by the company you are also losing out on the Super Contributions that would have been paid if it wasn't FBT.

If your company is doing this, you should make sure they are paying your "Living away from home allowance" FBT. Makes a hell of a difference. When my previous company paid Living away from home allowance FBT i was getting about 20K tax free.

Kieron

onlyme

Be careful about getting the LAFHA...

http://www.ato.gov.au/content.asp?do...e/mr200283.htm

Tax Office cautions foreign workers to beware of promoters offering living away from home allowance schemes


Percyp, sounds to me like you are being screwed. I checked out some medical insurance the other day on a couple of websites...I think it came out at around $130 per month for a couple and a baby.

shorrock

Ya I would Strongly recommend you shop around. A girl I work with came in on a 457 visa 6 years ago (she got it renewed) and her contract of employment stated that she must take out a specific Medical Cover. The problem is that medical cover is not approved against the MediCare Levy. WHich means she pays for Medical COver and gets hit for the Extra 1% (or is it 1.5%).

I can't remember which agency she is working through, but it's one of those agencies that just bring in ppl from overseas on 457 visa.

Kieron

Herman

My employer provides my wife and I with BUPA International insurance at no cost to us. It only covers treatment though so we still need Medicare for routine stuff.

percyp

Thanks guys,
Shorrock, what does this mean

Onlyme, think I will approach them again, they are just trying to do the 'proper' thing, big company and all that, stick by the rules, and the option that has minimum cost to them.

They did mention LAFHA, but it has to company initiated move to qualify, and they are just providing the job rather than asking me to go, but it may be a bargaining point.

cheers Jo

shorrock

in simple terms

NO Living away from home allowance example

You earn and taxed on 100K a year 9% of that goes to your super / pension

Living away from home allowance example

You earn 100k

80k is taxed
20K is LAFHA (tax free)

Your employer will only pay 9% super on the 80K part of your pay, not the total package. The down side of this is if your employer match or contribute extra super into your fund. As you will only get 80% of the original amount.

These examples are very simple and do not take into account the different levels of tax. So no flames, pls.

go to www.ato.gov.au for tax details or the Australian Fin review. www.afr.com.au (the fin review) has a calculator on FBT calculations.

Make sure you do your numbers before packaging your pay.


Kieron