Sorry to say, if you win the Lotto, you won't be allowed to claim it unless your a permanent resident!!!!:curse:

You MUST give information on LAFHA to your employer. Search on the tem on here and you;ll find lots of info.

For the employer it is really just an admin burden so if you let them knwo what it is and what they need to do they may do it for you.

If you can get LAFHA your rent will effectively be paid out of before tax income. You also get an addiitonal food and drink allowance.

As long as you are renting (not bought) then you caould easily be $10,000 better off in net pay annually if you get LAFHA.

Also, if you have bought a car or intend to (and it is less than 4 years old) then look into Novated Leases. These are 3 way arrangements with your employer, you and the leasor. You can sell your current car to them and lease it back. Big tax advantages in doing that including getting petrol, maintenace and rego free of income tax. That could make you a few $00 better off each month, depending on your circumstances.

can anyone do the lease thing or just 457?

Anyone. I only mentioned it as it is one of the best tax savings deveices after LAFHA in my opinion.

Novated Leases (where offered) are typically for all staff, I haven't come across a company that offers them but restricts to certain grades/salaries not least because it is effectively the ATO who provide the benefit.

There are lots of lease companies offering them; I have used BMW Finance (for a Toyota I might add) and Leaseplan; there are lots more.

Your employer of course must offer novated leases. If they don't ask them to that's what I did with my current company.

Its a bit complicated so I wont go into full detail but the lease is 3 way agreement. You but a car, and because the employer is involved get 10% GST input tax credit (i.e. save 10% straight away). You also get through the leasor a price that is wholeslae not retail, typically saving about a further 10% off the retail price.

You make lease payments (actually the word lease is quite misleading really as you are buying part ownerhsip by effectively financing half the car cost) which are deducted from salary.

You pay NO income tax on the lease, BUT you do pay Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT). The amount of FBT is based on actual mileage; you nominate a forecast in advance which is reconciled once a year. The highest FBT is 26% if your annual KMs are less than 15,000km. Above 15,000 it drops to 20% and keep dropping further than that.

If you say are on the 40% income tax rate, and you do 15,000km+ per annum, then the tax on your lease payment is 20% instead of your marginal tax rate of 40%.

You will pay for the finance but usually low, say 10%. So, you could save say 20% in tax but pay 10% interest, still making a FURTHER 10% saving.

It gets better though.

You nominate in advance how much you expect to pay fro fuel, maintenance rego and insurance in a year. The leasor will assist in calculating that. Lets say that is $5000 of total costs. Under the lease, you pay no income tax on that amount and there is no FBT either.

Put another way. If your marginal income tax rate is 40% then instead of paying say $1 for a litre of fuel you only really pay 60c.

You can typically use a novated lease for a car that is less than 4 years old, it doesn't ahve to be new, but this is a great way of buying a new car. You can also sell your current (<4year) car to them and finance it back to get these tax benefits.

At the end of say 3 years you will still have an outstanding amount of finance. You can typically refinance that or hand the car back. However, you will in advnce get a fixed price at which you can buy the car.

Last time I had a lease end on a 3yr old Rav4 the final payment was $12,000. However, I sold the car privately for $21,000; the buyer settled the finance and the lease company deposited the $9000 difference into my bank.

Just make sure you stick with a car that will sell easily and you will be fine.

I think I save about $300-400 a month buying my car this way.

Thanks to the LAFHA and the car lease and medical insurance being paid pre-tax, my husband's currently paying about 17% income tax (and he's on a pretty good salary so it should be a LOT higher).

All financed / subsidised by the average taxpayer

Glad I don't pay tax.....

It's a Dog Eat Dog world, eh?

With simialr benefits to those, my total tax bill on gross salary used to be 9%, and that was on a $100k+ salary

Cool - we'll give that to the Tax Accountant as a target.

Just noticed that someone stated that you can get Ist homeowner grant when you get PR . Please note you have to be a PR when you enter into the purchase contract - I was informed that I could claim it when PR came through - this is not the case.

Agreed.
They do state: "At least one applicant must be a permanent resident, or Australian citizen, at the time of settlement or completion of construction of the home."

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but to my understanding of the LAFHA is for people who are temporarily living away from home with the intention of returning home, and anybody that claims the benefit and doesn't return home has to repay all they have claimed.

In our case if you stay in Australia, you have not moved away from home, you have relocated, therefore, technically Australia is your intended new home.

Its a grey area, but I have read of cases where people had to pay a lot of money back to the government and some cases of people receiving large fines in court.

I emailed QLD OSR to ask exactly this question, Here is their reply
So if you are very confident PR will come then you could buy it now and then you have a year from then to get PR and submit your application to get the grant! or til june if you want the extra $$$$ currently on offer.

Its about your intention not what you finally end up doing isn't it? If you INTEND to return then you should be ok. If you INTEND to stay then you are, or become, ineligble for further lafha.

Only ever heard of problems after people have applied for PR - as the claim is then that they no longer intend to return home. Even that is argued as until PR granted then intention is unclear - you may intend to go home if it is denied...

I've just looked at the QLD application form

The relevant question is:
Is at least one applicant a permanent resident or Australian citizen?

For Victoria they have to say yes to:
I declare that at the date of lodgement of this application at least one applicant for the grant is a permanent resident or an Australian citizen.

It does appear that as long as you apply after PR, and before 12 months, at least in those States, that it is claimable.