Fuel tax credit claims simplified

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has revised the process for claiming fuel tax credits for claims of less than $10,000.

Fuel tax credits provide businesses with a credit for the fuel tax (excise or customs duty) that’s included in the price of fuel used in:

• machinery,
• plant,
• equipment,
• heavy vehicles,
• light vehicles travelling off public roads or on private roads.

The amount depends on when you acquire the fuel, what fuel you use and the activity you use it in. Some fuels and activities are not eligible including fuel used in light vehicles of 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass (GVM) or less, travelling on public roads.

Under the changes, you can now take advantage of the following simplified methods:

• When fuel tax credit rates change in a BAS period, you can now simply use the rate that applies at the end of that BAS period.
• To work out the total litres of fuel for your claim, you can use the total cost of the fuel you purchased in the BAS period, and divide it by the average price of the fuel for that period.

These changes apply to March 2016 BAS onwards and there is no need to advise the ATO that you are using the new methods, just be sure to keep the records that support your claim for five years.

You can also use a range of documents (such as a bank statement) to support your fuel tax credit claims for all your past and future BAS, meaning you no longer have to rely solely on fuel receipts.

To find out more about the simpler ways to record and calculate your fuel tax credits, visit the ‘Simplified fuel tax credits’ page on the ATO website here.