ATO issues favourable ruling on KPMG fuel tax credit product
KPMG Australia has announced an alliance with Geotab following the ATO’s favourable ruling regarding the firm’s approach to calculating fuel tax credits.
Announced on Tuesday, KPMG Australia and telematics technology company Geotab have allied to expand KPMG’s fleet solution offerings.
The announcement came following an ATO product ruling that found KPMG Australia’s fuel tax credit (FTC) Automator tool “fair and reasonable” in calculating FTCs.
The ATO has previously released a taxpayer alert sharing its concerns regarding GPS technology products as a method of substantiating FTC claims.
It warned taxpayers against making use of products that might distort their FTC claims by, for instance, incorrectly classifying public roads as non-public roads or relying on inadequate sample sizes in estimating fuel usage.
The FTC Automator is a technology-based FTC apportionment, calculation, and reporting platform used to calculate FTC entitlements for KPMG clients.
Under the new alliance, the Automator will use Geotab technology to produce entitlement calculations based on proprietary geospatial analytics.
The technology provided by Geotab assists organisations in calculating their credit entitlements on fuel excise for plants, equipment, heavy vehicles, and light vehicles.
“This is a direct response to market demand for a product that has undergone ATO review and testing ahead of its release of a formal, publicly available ruling,’ said KPMG Australia’s national leader for workforce and innovation, David P Sofrà.
Sofrà said the alliance will give KPMG clients access to a “holistic, end-to-end fleet technology solution that fulfils their needs.”
According to KPMG, the Automator can also provide insights on safety, emissions, fleet optimisation, and electrification viability.
Geotab APAC assistant vice president of sales, David Brown, said the Automator is a “very welcome and timely addition to the Geotab ecosystem.”
“We look forward to partnering with KPMG’s tax technology experts to develop additional, new solutions in the ever-evolving fleet space.”
Brown said the tool will allow KPMG to harness telematics data for its clients to provide “sector insights and industry-peer comparisons” on carbon, fleet utilisation, and safety.
