So if my wife and I move to AUS, and we both get offered LAHFA from our jobs...say $500/week for houseing could we both take it? Or is there a limit for households?

As I understand it, there is no joint filing in Australia so my wife and I file separate taxes.

So if we both get the full housing benefit, does all that money have to go to our house? I'm sure we could find a great place for $4000/month, but it wouldnt' be necessary to spend that much.


Thanks for the help!

Also, if I take LAFHA this lowers my base salary right?

This job has the opportunity to receive a bonus of about 30% of base salary. So if i took LAFHA I'd be lowering my potential for bonus, wouldn't I?

While you are right in saying that husbands and wives file separate tax returns, they are interlinked in that you have to declare you spouses income, name etc on each others return. This is because your joint income has an effect on the amount of medicare levy surcharge you pay.

I am not sure I know the answer to your LAFHA question however my gut reaction would be 'NO' you can't ! The LAFHA food component is definitley PER HOUSEHOLD and the accomodation component is per house/apartment which you technically have to provide receipts to prove you are paying the rent. If the ATO did a check and discovered that u were both claiming for rent on the same property then I think they might not be too happy !! So I am fairly sure the answer would be no.

You mention 'full housing benefit' - the amount you claim is the amount you pay in rent (providing this is a reasonable amount - you cant rent a 3 bedroomed waterfront apartment in the city). When we claimed LAFHA we were renting a 3 bed semi in the eastern suburbs of Sydney and paying $420 pw in rent - there were no issues with this. At the time we had no kids either. $500 pw would be quite acceptable I would think - perhaps more if you have kids.

LAFHA isn't a payment as such - it is a means to reduce the amount of tax you pay. So you don't get paid an extra $2000 per month - you just don't pay tax on that amount of money.

So if you earn $80k per year and your LAFHA entitlement adds up to $40k per year then you will only pay tax on $40k - the rest is tax free. So your total gross income doesn't change - just the amount you get in your pocket. So what you do with it is up to you !

Your bonus would be considered as income and would be added to your total base salary. The LAFHA would then be deducted to get your new taxable income. How this would be handled in practice would depend on how often they would pay you your bonus and how often they pay your salary.

Also remember that the amount of LAFHA you can claim per year is dependent on how much you earn and what the MINIMUM salary for your occupation group is. Your taxable income (gross + bonus - LAFHA) must be greater than this amount.