The short version: Nurses working for a not-for-profit or charitable aged care provider may be able to salary package around $15,900 a year in everyday living expenses tax-free, plus a further $2,650 on meals and entertainment. It only applies if your employer is set up for it, so it is worth checking rather than assuming.
Salary packaging is not a new idea, but it is easy to overlook when weighing up an aged care nursing role, because it never appears on the payslip the way an hourly rate does. For nurses working at an eligible not-for-profit or charitable aged care provider, it can be worth several thousand dollars a year in take-home value, without needing a pay rise at all.
The mechanism is a fringe benefits tax (FBT) concession the Australian Taxation Office grants to particular categories of not-for-profit employer. Public benevolent institutions and health promotion charities get a $30,000 grossed-up exemption cap each FBT year (1 April to 31 March), which works out to roughly $15,900 that can be directed towards everyday living expenses, such as rent, mortgage repayments or general bills, before it is taxed as income. Public hospitals and ambulance services sit on a lower $17,000 grossed-up cap. For-profit aged care operators generally cannot offer these concessions at all.
What it looks like on your pay
Instead of your gross salary being taxed in full and then spent, part of it is redirected to pre-approved expenses before tax applies. The figure on your contract does not change, but what you keep of it does. A separate $2,650 cap, on top of the general one, covers meal entertainment, things like dining out or venue hire, often loaded onto a dedicated prepaid card.
| Employer type | Approximate general living expenses cap (per FBT year) |
|---|---|
| Public benevolent institution or health promotion charity | $30,000 grossed-up, around $15,900 net |
| Public hospital or ambulance service | $17,000 grossed-up, around $9,010 net |
| For-profit aged care provider | Not eligible for these concessions |
Not every Tasmanian aged care employer sits in the first category. The exact figure depends on how your provider is structured for tax purposes. It is a fair, ordinary question to ask in an interview or directly to HR: whether salary packaging is offered here and which provider administers it.
Why it pays to check every year
Some nurses already package their mortgage or rent and barely think about it any more, while others have never been told it exists. It is opt-in, runs through a third-party provider such as Smart Salary or Maxxia and takes some initial paperwork to set up. None of that changes the fact that, for an eligible employee, leaving it unused is turning down real money for no real reason.
It is also worth checking annually rather than setting and forgetting. The FBT year resets on 1 April and caps can be adjusted. A new lease, a larger mortgage or a change in hours can shift how much of your cap is worth using.
A salary packaging cap you never claim is not a saving. It is simply income you paid tax on for no reason.
The bottom line
Salary packaging will not turn a below-award rate into a good one. It is no substitute for negotiating your pay. For eligible nurses, though, it is a straightforward, legitimate way to keep more of what you already earn. It costs nothing to ask about.
If you are a nurse, ask your employer, or a prospective one, whether salary packaging is available and through which provider. Get the details in writing before you accept a role. For more on what changed in aged care nurses’ pay this year, see our piece on the August wage rise.
If you are a facility leader and eligible to offer it, make sure new hires hear about salary packaging during onboarding, not just in the fine print of a contract. It is one of the few retention tools that costs the organisation very little and puts real money in a nurse’s pocket. For the fuller picture on how pay and conditions are moving across Tasmanian aged care, see our ongoing coverage on the CHC blog.
If you’re a nurse weighing up your next role, or a facility leader wanting to make sure your team knows what is on offer, Community Health Connect works with both sides of that conversation.
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