On 20th September 2023 the Australian Tax Office (ATO) granted our Prism platform with a Class Ruling relating to the apportionment of vehicle activity between public and non-public roads using data from Geotab telematics devices for Fuel Tax Credit (FTC) calculations. This is a significant milestone for Prism and a recognition of the quality of software developed by our team.
What this means for Prism users
If you are a Prism user with Geotab devices in your vehicles, you can now request access to the report to which the Class Ruling applies and start using this in your FTC process. The report ensures you have records that meet the ATO's criteria with respect to the apportionment of vehicle activity for FTC.
If you are not a Geotab user you can still access the same content but you can't rely on the assurances that the Class Ruling provides. While most of the underlying calculations performed by Prism are the same, the data provided by other hasn't been verified by the ATO as meeting their requirements relating to accuracy, consistency and error handling. Due to the wide variety of devices on the market and the quality of the data they produce, it was not possible for us to obtain a ruling for all systems that Prism integrates with.
If you are with another provider and a Class Ruling would be important to you, please let us know as we may consider further ruling applications in the future.
What is a Class Ruling?
A Class Ruling is a public ruling that provides a detailed interpretation of how a particular provision in the tax law applies to a specific arrangement or scheme for a defined set ('the Class') of entities. Class Rulings are used to provide consistency to taxpayers in a publicly accessible manner, which helps to reduce repetitive and lengthy engagement with the ATO on common topics within a industry sector.
What are the limitations?
As with most things tax-related, a Class Ruling doesn't provide assurance of a specific outcome or absolve the taxpayer of other responsibilities. In the case of FTC, this means that your claims can still be audited and the Prism report is not the only record that you need to keep to support a claim. There are other inputs to an FTC claim, such as the fuel amounts acquired in the claim period, which the Prism report does not contain.
There are also process aspects related to how Prism is configured that must be adhered to in order to ensure the calculations accuratley reflect your
How do I use this effectively?
- Have your FTC calculation process documented and reviewed by a qualified tax practicioner, to ensure it is fair, reasonable and robust
- Make sure the vehicle details and GPS data in Prism are complete, up to data and accurately reflect your fleet's activity
- Keep records of all other inputs to your FTC claim including fuel purchases and other references of activity that may be used to validate the GPS data
For more details head over to this page on the Prism Help Center.