Tag: car parks

Categories
News

Fringe Benefit Tax changes are coming to the parking

Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT)-Employers, don’t get caught out by FBT changes

There is a prospective change coming to fringe benefits tax (FBT) and car parking. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has prepared a draft taxation ruling that proposes to treat any car park that offers all-day parking as a commercial car park for FBT purposes. 

This is even if the car park’s fees are so high as to discourage all-day parking. Under that definition, shopping centre, hospital, airport and university car parks could all be considered commercial car parks.  

Businesses whose staff parking facilities are both in the vicinity of the workplace and within one kilometre of such a car park may now have to pay FBT on the taxable value of employees’ car spaces, where previously they did not. 

Any business that provides employees with car parking but is currently exempt from FBT on that parking needs to assess whether these changes will impact them, and make that assessment sooner rather than later. 

Businesses in areas like Sydney’s Macquarie Park and North Ryde, home to car parks associated with Macquarie University and Macquarie Centre shopping centre, will potentially be impacted by these changes. 

Local transport management association Connect Macquarie Park & North Ryde is helping to educate their members about the prospective changes. Some of these businesses may be liable for thousands of dollars in car parking fringe benefits tax for the first time, and it is important that they determine now whether their liability is going to change.  

The prospective changes have the potential to affect any business in Australia within a kilometre of a shopping centre, airport, university or hospital car park. Those in areas like Melbourne’s Carlton and Parkville, with their plethora of car parks associated with the University of Melbourne and RMIT, could be affected. 

Businesses in Eagle Farm, Hendra and Nundah within a kilometre of the numerous Brisbane Airport parking facilities should assess whether they will be impacted by the changes. Organisations in proximity to Adelaide’s largest shopping centre Westfield Marion and its car parks, need to do the same. 

If businesses determine now that they will be affected by the changes, they can get ahead of the game and invest in smarter parking technology that can save them money at tax time. The ATO calculates how much FBT is payable on a car parking space based on its utilisation.

If a business can show, with thorough, accurate, real-time reporting, that utilisation is low – perhaps whilst their employees are working from home, for example – they can reduce their FBT liability. To be able to demonstrate this when FBT is due, businesses need to put the smarter parking systems in place now. 

For a few years now, DIVVY has been working with Connect and several Macquarie Park and North Ryde businesses, including Downer, Boral, Novartis and DXC Technology, to help them get the most out of their car parking and other bookable assets.  

Even our existing clients might not know that DIVVY’s fringe benefits tax reporting has been given the thumbs up by Deloitte Private, who acknowledge that using DIVVY’s reports can, in the relevant circumstances, result in a reduction to the car parking fringe benefits tax payable.  

The ATO’s final ruling is expected later this year and the changes will take place from April 2021.  

Car parking fringe benefits tax change is almost certainly coming, so make sure you take those proactive steps now. 

This is general information, and we recommend that you seek professional taxation advice relevant to your circumstances.  

For more information, please contact Kat Fowler, DIVVY’s Marketing and Communications Manager at kat@divvy.com.au.  

Categories
News

How DIVVY is helping businesses navigate COVID-19

Parking Technology or Optimising bookable assets through smarter technology

There’s no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic has touched the life of every Australian and had an impact on every Australian business.  

Since the first lockdown in March, it has been a time of great change and uncertainty. As individuals and businesses, we’ve needed to draw on our resilience and adaptability.  

Here at DIVVY, we’ve been focussed on looking after our team and supporting our customers. We’ve also been finding new ways to help businesses get back to work as they navigate the new normal.  

Our car parks 

Since the pandemic took off in Australia, we’ve been working more closely than ever with our building owners and parking listers. We’ve been staying abreast of their COVID-19 policies and procedures to ensure safe and healthy car parks. 

Our Enterprise customers 

Our Enterprise system is helping businesses with vacant employee parking to increase efficiencies during COVID-19. It generates reports quickly and easily. The reports help businesses investigate whether they are eligible for a reduction in Fringe Benefits Tax or an exemption from the Parking Space Levy. Click here to read more about how your business can save on its car parking spaces during COVID-19. 

DIVVY Enterprise features like Book on Behalf and Free Up My Space allow businesses to manage changing employee parking needs as the pandemic evolves. The system uses secure cloud-based technology, so it can be operated from anywhere.  

It’s been an opportune time for our Enterprise customers with parking listed for public booking on DIVVY Marketplace. The demand for public parking is on the rise as people return to their workplaces but choose to avoid public transport. 

The contactless DIVVY pre-book parking system offers drivers peace of mind. There’s no handling of cash, pulling parking tickets, using payment machines or touching any shared surfaces at all with a pre-booked DIVVY car park.  

Optimising bookable assets through smarter technology 

For more than twelve months now, our employees have been entering and exiting our offices using contactless DIVVY access technology. 

Contactless access has never been more relevant. We’ve seen an increased focus on our technology’s ability to provide contactless access to bike lockers, end of trip facilities, meeting rooms and more. 

After witnessing the challenges faced by businesses during COVID-19, we took the booking platform technology that works so well for parking and adapted it for a range of new applications.  

Queuing and Contact Tracing Platform 

Our Queuing and Contact Tracing Platform allow any business that is visited by the public to communicate with its customers: 

  • its peak periods 
  • its busiest and quietest days 
  • in the event of queuing, the wait time to enter the venue 

The Platform makes it easy for customers to plan their visit before they leave home, helping them to avoid busy periods, save time and visit with peace of mind.  

The Platform has pre-book capabilities, enabling customers to book their visit in advance to avoid queuing. It allows businesses to control the time, duration and number of customers accessing their premises, and even manage separate areas within the venue. This helps businesses to adhere to venue capacity limits and maintain social distancing within their premises.  

Our Queuing and Contact Tracing Platform can also capture visitor contact details quickly and easily. It makes it possible to track interactions and crossovers between visitors and employees, helping with contact tracing should it be required. For those businesses conducting health attestation questionnaires, our Platform makes it quick and simple to collect and store visitors’ declarations of symptoms.  

Find out how DIVVY are helping Australian supermarket giant Woolworths take care of their customers with their Q-Tracker tool here.  

Back to Work Module 

To help businesses safely transition their staff back to their workplaces, we have launched our new Back to Work module. It allows businesses to manage how many staff will be in the workplace at any one time, as well as maintaining a digital record of staff attendance in the workplace.  

Staff use the DIVVY app to book a day and time to come into work. The booking parameters – how many staff can access the workplace, on which days and at which times – are set by the business. Just like the DIVVY parking experience, staff use a QR code on their phone for contactless entry to the workplace. 

It makes it easy for businesses to meet public health directions and comply with COVID-19 Safety Plans in their workplaces. The module has already been successfully adopted by TOGA Far East Hotels at their head office in Ultimo, Sydney.  

We are here to help. For more information, please get in touch with our friendly team at sales@divvy.com.au.   

Categories
News

Smarter Parking Report released with The NRMA

NRMA Smarter Parking Report - Case Reform


Several buildings located across some of Sydney’s busiest suburbs are utilising less than one-third of available parking spaces, while up to thirty percent of traffic in congested areas is looking for parking spaces, according to a new report released by the NRMA and DIVVY.

The Smarter Parking Report, released to coincide with the Roads Australia Transport Summit, details the parking problems plaguing Australian cities and highlights the huge imbalance between parking supply and demand.

Currently, the average casual daily parking rate in Sydney is $70.85, compared with $18.21 in Canberra and $22.29 in Adelaide.

With even some of the largest institutional owners of car spaces forced to leave parking assets dormant – often due to restrictions and regulations – the NRMA and DIVVY looked at parking utilisation rates across seven Sydney buildings and found those that forbid public access had significantly lower utilisation rates than those that allowed parking non-tenants.

One building in Walker Street, North Sydney had just 32 per cents of spaces used, a Harris Street, Pyrmont lot had 74 per cent utilisation while a Clarence Street building had 20 per cent of spaces left vacant.

By contrast, the remaining four buildings audited across the Sydney and Parramatta CBDs that allowed public access all saw utilisation rates between 90-97 per cent.

Globally, Australia has some of the lowest ratios of car spaces to workers. The Sydney and Melbourne CBDs have just 12.2 and 14.2 spaces for ever 100 workers.

NRMA CEO Rohan Lund said; Members were frustrated with parking options and exorbitant costs in metropolitan areas right across Australia.

“NRMA research shows 44 per cent of drivers have returned home because they couldn’t find a parking spaces,” Mr Lund said.

“When two out of every five Members we survey tell us they are now often avoiding specific locations because of parking, we know access to parking is having an adverse effect on the economy, particularly small businesses who rely on accessibility.

“We now need to start thinking outside the square when it comes to solving our parking issues. We must find innovative ways to unlock more of the spaces that lie dormant every day, improve the last-mile for workers through commuter car parks and use available technologies to move toward smart cities.”

DIVVY CEO Grant Fowler said:

“Empty parking spaces represented the huge untapped potential for both businesses and frustrated drivers, helping to address Sydney’s parking shortage and opening an additional revenue stream for businesses.

“We know that up to 30 percent of the traffic in metropolitan areas is cruising for a parking space. Taking more of the parking volume off the street allows cities to move more freely,”

“Using technology such as DIVVY, businesses can become aware of the possibilities that now exist and parking assets no longer need to sit unused.”

“There are thousands of parking spaces that lie dormant every day and just as many drivers who are in search of a parking space. Businesses, along with all levels of government need to adjust their policies and planning so more of these spaces can open up for public use.”

Read the Smarter Parking Report Here or see what our partners at the NRMA have to say