My partner got a new job in government, and part of her salary package is about $5k in fringe benefits. We have never gotten it before and are a bit uneducated in it, but from what we know, we can put it into any accounts that pay we off like home loan, health insurance etc. We don't have a lot of these and one of her workers says they just use it to pay off their credit card essentially making it $5k extra in salary.
If anyone has any other things they can think of i can put it towards that would be great. We are only a young couple at mid 20's, so we don't have a lot of expenses. The credit card does sound good if anyone could give any recommendations on one we should get.
Thanks.
I used to get salary packaging under the scheme for Public Benevolent Institutions when I worked at a charity, which I think is what you're talking about.
I recommend the credit card, because you can just attach the credit card statement to the paperwork you have to do quarterly. Otherwise you need to attach every receipt for everything you bought up to $5k. We also had meal entertainment salary packaging, which was time intensive, you need to harrass every food place for a tax invoice, keep every receipt and fill out paperwork about it all.
I'd choose a credit card that has the most rewards for you - If most of your expenses are at Coles, read up about the Coles credit card, if you go on holidays a lot, read up about frequent flyer ones. There are websites that compare which have the best return points per spend if you just spend generally.
One catch for me was my salary was under the HECS repayment threshold, but the salary packaging put me over because of fringe benefit tax. So I would be prepared for that, you may owe HECS at tax time.