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Novated leasing is a unique way of financing your new or used car which can provide a wide range of benefits. However, before you sign on the dotted line, it’s important to understand the pros and cons of a novated lease to help you determine whether it’s worth it for you. Learn all about the advantages and disadvantages of novated leasing right here with Savvy!
How novated leasing works
Novated leasing offers a unique approach to financing a car while incorporating tax benefits. It involves an arrangement between you (the employee), your employer and a novated lease provider. You enter into a salary packaging agreement with your employer, allocating a portion of your pre-tax salary towards the lease payments and car running costs.
In essence, your employer makes the lease payments and other related costs directly to the novated lease provider on your behalf. From there, your novated lease agreement will run for a specified term (between one and five years). At the end of your term, you can decide whether to purchase the car, extend your current lease or end your existing lease by selling or trading in your car, which allows you to start a new lease.
The pros of novated leases
- Lower taxable income
One of the primary benefits of a novated lease is that it can reduce the income tax you’re required to pay. This is because payments are taken from your pre-tax income by your employer, lowering the tax you’re charged on your salary. This is known as salary sacrificing.
For example, let's say you earn $100,000 a year and choose to pay $1,000 per month for your novated lease. That means your taxable salary would drop by $12,000 per year to $88,000. Based on 2024-25 tax rates, this would reduce your income tax by $3,600.
- Running costs included in your payments
Novated lease companies can bundle all the main costs of running a vehicle into your fixed monthly payments, which are known as fully maintained novated leases. A range of costs can be included here, including servicing, registration, petrol or charging and car and CTP insurance, saving you the worry of organising and paying for these yourself. Additionally, these come out of your pre-tax income, further reducing your taxable salary.
However, you also have the option to instead take out a non-maintained novated lease, which allows you to organise all of this yourself. While these costs will come out of your post-tax income, rather than pre-tax, you can have more control over factors such as your insurance and servicing, enabling you to potentially find more affordable options than your leasing company’s picks.
- GST-free purchases
In addition to reducing your income tax, novated leasing allows you to avoid paying GST on the purchase price of the vehicle. This could be a significant saving of thousands of dollars, depending on the price of your car. The leasing company can claim the GST on the purchase of the car, which can then be passed down as savings to you.
Additionally, electric cars and PHEVs aren’t subject to the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) in Australia when obtained through a novated lease.
- Range of available options at the end of your lease
When it comes to the end of your novated lease term, you’ll be left with a residual or balloon payment that you’re required to cover. There are several options you can take when dealing with this, including:
- Paying the residual in full and taking ownership of the vehicle
- Refinancing the residual to extend your existing lease with the same car
- Selling or trading in your car to cover the residual and taking out a new lease with a new car
- Selling or trading in your car to cover the residual and ending your novated leasing arrangement
- Leasing for personal use
Unlike a standard car lease, where you’re required to use it at least 50% of the time for business purposes, novated leasing allows you to use your car however you like, with up to 100% of its usage able to be personal. There are no restrictions in place on how you’re required to use the vehicle, giving you greater freedom and peace of mind.
- Convenience
In contrast to a car loan, where you’re tasked with managing the ongoing payments yourself, a novated leasing arrangement leaves much of this in the hands of your employer. With payments coming out of your pre-tax salary and being made directly to your leasing company, it’s a more hands-off approach than other car financing options.
The cons of novated leases
- Only available with employers who offer them
Of course, whether you can obtain a novated lease is subject to whether your employer offers them. If your place of work doesn’t provide any salary sacrificing arrangements when it comes to cars, the option simply isn’t available to you.
Even if your employer does offer them, though, your options will be limited to the company (or companies) they work with, meaning you may not be able to get the best novated leasing rates on the market. Finally, if your employer offers them, these arrangements are only open to salaried employees.
- Dealing with the residual value
Although there are plenty of options for how to pay off your residual, having to deal with it at all can prove a challenge. The residual value is determined by your leasing company and is intended to represent your car’s proposed value at the conclusion of your lease.
Depending on the value of your car, your lump sum residual payment could be difficult to cover if you intend to keep the vehicle. For instance, a one-year lease will come with a residual of at least 65.63% of your car’s purchase price (following the ATO’s guidelines as of March 2024), meaning the minimum payment required for a $50,000 car would be $32,815 in this example.
- Potential complications if you leave your job
Because your novated lease is tied to your employment, changing jobs could result in complications. If your new employer doesn’t offer novated leasing as an option, you’ll be required to continue paying your de-novated lease. This would mean you lose the various tax benefits of your previous arrangement.
- You don’t own the car until the end of the lease
Under a novated leasing agreement, you don’t own the vehicle until the end of your term, when your residual is paid. This means that while you can use your car freely throughout your term, you won’t be able to make any modifications to your car unless approved by your leasing company.
- FBT may apply
As mentioned above, FBT doesn’t apply to electric vehicles and PHEVs, but it can apply to any other car obtained through a novated lease. This is a tax that applies to fringe benefits provided to an employee by an employer. Novated leasing is a common example of this, but other benefits such as private health insurance and accommodation allowances can also be included.
Although FBT is charged to employers, rather than employees, the cost can often be passed on to you. However, by using the Employee Contribution Method (ECM), you can make post-tax contributions to the running costs of your vehicle, which in turn reduces your FBT liability. You can pay this down to $0 in some cases.
Is novated leasing worth it?
Whether a novated lease is worth it for you will depend entirely on your personal circumstances. It’s crucial to weigh up the pros and cons carefully before you commence your lease and seek professional tax advice if you’re unsure of how such an agreement might affect you.
If you want to find out more about your finance options, you can compare a variety of car loans and leasing arrangements with Savvy today.
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Bill TsouvalasFact checked
This guide provides general information and does not consider your individual needs, finances or objectives. We do not make any recommendation or suggestion about which product is best for you based on your specific situation and we do not compare all companies in the market, or all products offered by all companies. It’s always important to consider whether professional financial, legal or taxation advice is appropriate for you before choosing or purchasing a financial product.
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