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Maintenance income: motor vehicle expenses 277-51100020

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This document outlines how motor vehicle expenses, when received as child support or as spousal maintenance, may be assessed as maintenance income, which can affect the rate of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A.

Motor vehicle expenses assessed as child support

Motor vehicle expenses can be assessed as child support if:

  • the vehicle is available for the payee to use, and
  • the expenses are:
    • running costs (petrol, registration, tyres, minor repairs)
    • costs of providing the vehicle as an asset for the payee (e.g. loan repayments, insurance premiums, modifications), but only if the vehicle is owned or jointly owned by the payee

If the payer and payee share ownership or use of the vehicle, only assess the expenses that relate to the payee's share or use.

If ownership of the vehicle has been transferred to the payee, it may be assessed as capitalised maintenance depending on the value.

Child Support agreements

Child Support agreements with a start date of 1 July 2008 or later are no longer manually assessed or coded by Centrelink staff, they are assessed by Child Support.

For agreements with a start date before 1 July 2008, any non-cash maintenance must be manually recorded on the Centrelink system for the period up to and including 30 June 2008. For agreements in place before 1 July 2008 that have been accepted by Child Support and transitioned under the Child Support Scheme Reforms from 1 July 2008, non-cash maintenance previously coded on the Centrelink system is maintained by Centrelink.

The Resources page contains examples of how to assess the value of a motor vehicle provided as child support.

Related links

Determining if a payment is child support/ maintenance income for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customer receives spousal maintenance

Non-cash maintenance income assessment for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

Recording private maintenance income on Centrelink systems

Assessing capitalised maintenance income for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)