2026 FBT Year End is Fast Approaching! The end of the Fringe Benefits Tax ( FBT ) year is fast approaching on 31 March 2026, so we take this opportunity to revisit some hot FBT topics for both employers and employees, including: FBT exemption for electric cars Overlooking or misreporting FBT on private use of work vehicles Does FBT apply to your contractors? Reducing the FBT record keeping burden Mismatched claims for entertainment Employee contributions by journal entry in the accounts Not lodging FBT returns FBT housekeeping

Division 296 draft legislation introduced to Parliament Last week the revised Division 296 draft legislation was introduced into Parliament, and some technical amendments have been made after the exposure draft consultation phase. We will explain some particular areas of concern and re-consider some questions we had raised in earlier Tax Alerts on this topic. This draft legislation has been progressing at a rapid pace, and it appears the Government wants to get this legislation finalised as soon as possible, with these Division 296 rules set to apply from 1 July 2026.

Transfer Balance Cap indexation & Superannuation changes Following the recent release of the December 2025 quarterly CPI figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics’, the general transfer balance cap ( TBC ) will increase from $2 million to $2.1 million from 1 July 2026. This is applicable for superannuation fund members considering starting their first retirement phase income stream in 2026–27. This could provide tax effective retirement pension and non-concessional contribution opportunities for some members. The Australian Taxation Office needs to formally confirm this increase.

Mandating cash acceptance The Government recently announced that it was delivering on its commitment "to mandate cash acceptance for essential purchases by finalising regulations that require fuel and grocery retailers to accept cash from 1 January 2026." The changes mean that, from 1 January 2026 , most food and grocery retailers must accept cash for in-person transactions of $500 or less between 7am and 9pm. Small businesses with aggregate annual turnover under $10 million are generally exempted from this mandate. However, this mandate still applies to small businesses that choose to share a trademark with a large retailer. The Government noted that, in addition to the cash mandate for fuel and groceries, consumers also already have the option to pay their bills, including utilities, phone bills and council rates, in cash at their local Australia Post outlet through Post Billpay. The Government will review this mandate after three years, to ensure it is functioning as intended. We prepared a Special Topic article within our Practice Update - December 2025, if you want to read more on this topic – click here .

Preparing your business for Payday Super changes starting 1 July 2026 From 1 July 2026, employers will have to pay their employees’ compulsory Superannuation Guarantee ( SG ) contributions at the same time as they pay their salary and wages (ie. ordinary time earnings, OTE ). This is a change in the frequency of the payment rather than its calculation. With less than six months remaining, we believe it is very important to start preparing your business for these changes. We will outline some actionable steps that can be taken now to help manage the process to be compliant with the new changes leading up to 1 July 2026. These changes will apply to all Employers, whether they have pay cycles weekly, fortnightly, monthly or irregularly. SG contributions must generally arrive in an employee’s chosen super fund within 7 business days of each payday . Please note that in November 2025 we released a Tax Alert after the payday super rules received Royal Assent and became law summarising the changes employers need to be aware of - to read click here .