Can I transfer my novated lease to another employer?
Yes, you can transfer your novated lease to a new employer if they support salary packaging. Learn how the transfer works and what to do if they don’t.
Yes, transferring your novated lease is usually possible.
If you're moving to a new job and your new employer offers novated leasing, you can generally transfer your existing lease with a little coordination.
How to transfer your novated lease:
1. Confirm your new employer supports novated leasing
This is the first and most important step. Not every company offers novated leasing as part of their salary packaging benefits, but almost all will include it as part of your offer if you've brought it up.
If they don’t, see your other options below.
2. Notify your lease provider
Your lease provider (like us) will guide the transfer process. They’ll work with your new employer to update the salary packaging agreement and restart payroll deductions.
3. Paperwork and approval
Your new employer will need to sign a new deed of novation. There’s a bit of admin, but once approved, your repayments continue, and your tax benefits are preserved.
What if my new employer doesn’t offer novated leasing?
If novated leasing isn’t an option with your new employer, you’ll need to:
- Take over the lease privately: You continue to make the lease repayments personally (post-tax) until the lease ends.
- Refinance or pay out the lease: You can refinance the remaining lease amount into a regular car loan or pay it out in full.
- Early termination: You can also choose to end the lease, though fees may apply.
Important things to know:
- There's usually a small fee to transfer, but it depends on the new employer and what arrangement we may have with them. We'll always be upfront about this fee as soon as we know where you're moving.
- Your car stays with you during the process, you don’t lose it unless you actively choose to terminate.
- The lease term, repayment amount, and inclusions stay the same unless renegotiated. The main thing that changes is a different payroll is making your payment.
Key takeaway
As long as your new employer supports it, transferring your novated lease is a smooth and common process - just make sure to loop your provider in early.
Related Information:
The Luxury Car Charge is a salary deduction used to offset the extra tax your employer pays when you lease a car above the ATO’s luxury car depreciation limit. It helps them recover the shortfall from reduced tax deductions.
Please note, this is completely separate from the Luxury Car Tax (LCT).
FBT is a tax (with a rate at 47%) applied to fringe benefits (incentives beyond salary/wages received from an employer). A non-electric car under a novated lease is a fringe benefit (electric cars are completely FBT exempt in Australia).
The employer is responsible for paying the FBT, but at Clear Lease - we use the employee contribution method (contributing post-tax funds) to offset any FBT to zero.
Our regular novated lease package (fully-maintained) usually includes your car lease repayments, fuel/charging, servicing, maintenance & repairs, registration, insurance, and tyres - all bundled into a single pre-tax deduction.
Yes, but it’s treated as a financial termination. You'll need to pay out the remaining lease value (and any fees), and you may lose some tax benefits. Talk to us to get a payout quote from your financier.
No, when your employer leases the car, they claim the GST credit, meaning you don’t pay GST on the purchase price. The same applies to most running costs. You will, however, pay GST if you buy the car at lease end.
Yes, if you’d like to keep the car, you simply pay the residual value set at the beginning of the lease. You can pay this from your personal funds, or refinance it separately. Once paid, the car is yours. You can also sell or trade it in and start a new lease.
Your lease doesn’t end if you change jobs. You can either transfer it to your new employer, pay privately until the lease ends, or choose to end the lease early.
Cars that are too old, unroadworthy, imported, heavily modified, or intended for commercial use typically don’t qualify for novated leasing. Motorcycles are also excluded under current ATO guidelines.
Luxury Car Tax (LCT) applies to vehicles that exceed the government’s set price thresholds. For the 2024–25 year, it’s $76,950 for standard vehicles and $89,332 for fuel-efficient ones. If your lease includes a car above these values, LCT may be added to your lease costs.
Please note: This is very different to the Luxury Car Charge (LCC).