Prepare a return

Declarations

One of the most important aspects of preparing an accurate FBT return is ensuring that all necessary supporting documentation has been recorded. ; ;FBT declarations ;are documents that are required by the ATO to be provided as evidence to confirm that either the employer has done what is expected, or that if employee, who has been provided with a particular benefit, has completed the necessary details to substantiate a deduction or exemption or to provide evidence of an election or other choice or action regarding the provided benefit.
The declarations provided are the Australian Tax Office-approved declarations. You can edit these declarations and include merge fields for printing.

Latest Information

See the ATO website for additional details and the most up to date information:
Standard ATO-approved declarations ;are provided in ONESOURCE Fringe Benefit Tax and are, in most cases, linked to the workpaper and employee. Users ;can edit these declarations and include merge fields for printing. Declarations can be converted to .pdf format or emailed. ;For the list of standard ATO-approved declarations, see https://www.ato.gov.au/forms/employee-declaration/.
As an example, the Living away from home allowance (LAFHA) is the most complicated case of providing declarations. There are 3 possible declarations for LAFHA and they can be linked to the employee in the LAFHA workpaper.
In the example workpaper below:
  • There is a declaration required when
    Yes
     is shown under the relevant column.
Based on the workpaper rows, the employees will automatically be listed for the required declarations as follows:
  • Row 1:
     Living Away From Home Declaration - employee related expenses plus Living Away From Home Declaration - employees with Australian home
  • Row 4:
     Living Away From Home Declaration - FIFO or DIDO plus Living Away From Home Declaration - employee related expenses
The same sort of thing occurs for Loans, Vehicles, etc. except that there is only a single declaration that will be generated in these cases.

Declaration links

Declarations can also be linked to an employee from the employee workpaper.
Declaration name
Linked in Employee workpaper?
Linked to a workpaper benefit row?
Work Related Car Travel
Yes
Vehicle Details
Employee's Car †
Yes
No
Employment interview or selection test
Yes
No
Expense Payment
Yes
Expense
Expense Payment - Recurring
Yes
Expense
Expense Payment Employer - No private use
No
No
Fuel Expenses
Yes
Vehicle Details
Living Away From Home - employee related expenses
Yes
LAFHA*
Living Away From Home - employees with Australian home
No
LAFHA*
Living Away From Home - FIFO or DIDO
No
LAFHA*
Loan
Yes
Loan
Log Book Year Of Tax
No
No
Odometer Reading
Yes
Vehicle Details
Property
Yes
Property
Property - Recurring
Yes
Property
Relocation Transport
Yes
No
Remote Area Holiday Transport
Yes
No
Residual
Yes
Residual
Residual - Recurring
Yes
Residual
Residual - Vehicle Other Than a Car
Yes
No
Residual Employer - No Private Use
No
No
Temporary Accommodation
Yes
No
* Relates to a specific row with 'Yes' under "Declaration Required" as shown in the workpaper
note
The
Employee’s car declaration
 is used for loan, expense payment, property, or residual fringe benefits and does not have vehicle merge fields.
Field links in Declarations
There are merge fields available in most of the Declarations, these fields are taken from the Employee workpaper, and, where the link is to a benefit workpaper, the fields will be 'date', 'percentage', etc. depending on the type of declaration and the data required to be entered.
Example - Vehicle declarations
There are three Vehicle declarations linked to the Employee and Vehicle workpapers.
  1. Declaration of Work Related Car Travel
  2. Fuel Expenses Declaration
  3. Odometer Reading Declaration
When employees are associated with a car(s) listed in this workpaper the following data fields can be added as merge fields in the relevant declaration.
  • Registration Number
  • Description
  • Acquisition Date
  • Disposal Date
  • Purchase Type
  • Base Value with GST
  • Opening Kilometres
  • Closing Kilometres
  • Engine Capacity
  • Logbook Year
Declarations Not Linked
Three declarations are not linked to employees or any workpaper. They are completed by the employer (preparer):
  • Expense Payment Employer - No private use
  • Residual Employer - No Private Use
  • Log Book Year Of Tax

This article applies to:

  • Product: ONESOURCE Fringe Benefits Tax