Salary Packaging within the Catholic Education Office

The Catholic Education Office (CEO) allows permanent employees to participate in salary packaging to achieve their maximum allowable total remuneration package. Whether an individual employee will receive a benefit from packaging depends on the type of benefit, the salary of the employee, plus the individual tax/pay related circumstances of the employee.

It is a condition of salary packaging that employees seek independent financial advice before packaging items subject to Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT), as their individual circumstances will determine whether any overall benefit is achieved.

There are a number of salary packaged items which employees can include as part of their overall remuneration package but employees need to keep in mind that there is only a benefit to an employee if the income tax saved by paying for an item out of pre-tax salary is more than the FBT relating to the item.

View a list of items, along with the FBT implication, and an indicative salary range over which packaging the item would prove beneficial.

If a staff member wishes to package a laptop (through a direct purchase) and/or superannuation with Catholic Super and Retirement Fund, then these items are packaged directly with the Catholic Education Office (no administration fee charged for this service).

McMillan Shakespeare Australia (MSA) who charges an administration fee of $11.54 per fortnight administers all other packaging arrangements for the CEO.  You can use the MSA calculator on their website to see if you would benefit from salary packaging.

Please note that if packaging a Novated Lease for a vehicle, the FBT held will be calculated using the statutory rate of 20% (equivalent of 15,000 to 24,999 kilometres travelled in the one year).  A statutory rate of 26% will be applied where the employee has nominated that the vehicle will travel less than 15,000 in the one year.  Employees may only request a lower statutory percentage on the basis that they have a proven track record of travelling the nominated kilometres over the past TWO FBT years.  The difference between the FBT deducted from the employee’s salary and the actual FBT calculated will be refunded (or payable) after the FBT year ending on 31st March.

McMillan Shakespe are represented in Canberra and a Business Manager is available to meet with you (and your partner) personally to discuss your leasing options.  To make an appointment please phone MSA on 1300 123 123. 

Items can only be packaged up to a “grossed-up” limit of $30,000 for any individual. This means that if you are packaging full FBT items such as a mortgage, the maximum you can pay through salary packaging is $16,050. Your financial adviser should be able to assist further with any questions in this area.

The Catholic Education Office has rebateable employer status for FBT purposes, which means that for the first $30,000 “grossed-up” of packaging expenses, there is an effective tax rate of around 31%.

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