Mark Hooper: Federated Farmers transport spokesperson on the backlash to the Government's new 'ute tax'

Federated Farmers is calling on Revenue Minister Simon Watts to rule out new changes to the Fringe Benefit tax that would impact utes.

The IRD has proposed major changes to the way FBT applies to utes and farmers are concerned this would set them back thousands of dollars a year.

Federated Farmers' transport spokesperson Mark Hooper says this issue started drawing in more attention post-Fieldays.

"We've had a little bit of communication with the minister's office - as I said, we looked at it from a farm perspective, we could see that there were some issues with the categories they had laid out." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now tell you what farmers are not happy with, revenue
Minister Simon, what's are they? He is the guy responsible
for a plan change to the way that fringe benefit
tax applies to utes. If he goes through with this,
it would cost farmers thousands of dollars every single year.
Mark Hooper is Federated Farmer's Transport spokesperson with US. Now, Hey, Mark,
good evening, Heather. Have you heard what the government's just

(00:21):
sent through to us.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm pretty much aware of what's been going on. Basically,
it was a bit of a story that blew up
post field days when there was a lot of hype
around buying new utes with commodity price has been up,
and the government government's newly announced investment boost which allowed
an immediate twenty percent depreciation deductibility on new assets. And

(00:47):
then in the midst of that fintech findex. Sorry tax
advisors they sort of said, hang on a minute, whatever
you just saved on depreciation and you could just have
ended up losing through the proposed changes to the FBT rules.
So it was a bit of a classic case of

(01:08):
giving on one hand while taking on the other. And
not only that, but of course it's a FBT is
the cost every year. So obviously the optics around this
we're not looking too good at the time.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, and so have you heard what the government's just
sent through to us?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
What have they sent through all of this.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Debarcle mark over the last few days has gone on
about a week now. They have sent us a statement
that says, in terms of introducing a new eighty thousand
dollars fringe benefit tax threshold on utes, we can rule
that out. Ird consider a lot of things regularly, but
this is something that is not going to get progressed.
How good.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
That's a great result, and that was certainly one of
the issues that we had with it. You know, we
looked at it from the perspective of what we know
actually happens on farms. And you know, if you're buying
new utes, if you want to look at say a
seventy series Land Cruiser, your starting prices around eighty grand,
and regardless of whether it was one hundred percent work

(02:09):
related use or not, by going over that threshold, it
immediately put you into one hundred percent payment for FBT criteria.
And so that was a considerably ongoing significant expense on
that purchase.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
How long have you guys been going on about this?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well, as I say, it only just blew up really
post field days, and I think that was.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
I see part of the on some of these stories.
So that's that's Friday. Is it Friday last week?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
So that yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, sould been going on about it since Friday last
We've got no traction at all, and then all of
a sudden today they do a U turn.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well, we've had a little bit of communication with the
Minister's office obviously. You know, as I said, we looked
at it from a farm perspective. We could see that
there were some issues with the categories that they had
laid out. Was really easy for the way that we
use farm use for those to be escalated into the
higher categories, hence a significantly greater FBT liability. And so

(03:09):
you know, once that came out, it was just a
case of really getting hold of the Minister's office and
talking through some of these issues. As great to hear
an immediate response.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Okay, yes, it's brilliant, Mark, Thank you very much. I'm
stoked for you. Mark Hooper, Federated Farmers Transport spokesperson. For
more from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive. Listen live to news
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