I'm looking at the FBT treatmet for carparks leased from a commercial carpark near an employers premises in Melbourne CBD. Ordinarily, apart from circumstances when an employee could not use it (such as when travelling interstate), a benefit arises whether the carpark was used or not as it was available for their use. In the case of Covid lockdowns, employees were not allowed to travel to the office and, in any case, there was a limit of 5 klm from home that one could travel, an employee could not legally use the car park. In the case I'm considering, the car park remained open during the lockdown and fees were paid. The ATO website says that “if all of the commercial parking stations within a 1km radius of your business premises are closed on a particular day due to COVID-19, there will be no car parking benefits provided� but I cannot find anything that deals with lockdowns where the employee cannot legally use the car park. It would seem that this should qualify for the car park not being available for the employee's use, although it was open, thereby not causing a carparking benefit to arise?
Any thoughts appreciated.
1,210 views
2 replies