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Novated Lease Companies

Name: Novated Lease Companies
Creator: Savvy
Published: 2020-12-16T17:10:57+10:30

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Written by , updated on June 29th, 2023

Compare the best novated lease companies in Australia

It’s important to compare your options as thoroughly as you can when searching for the right novated leasing deals. This type of car finance involves taking out a car lease as an employee through your employer, who handles the lease payments and takes them out of your salary with salary packaging. It’s incredibly useful, as it affords you the use of a car without committing to its purchase immediately and comes with numerous tax benefits. Read more here about novated leasing and some of the companies to consider.

Who are some of the top novated leasing companies in Australia?

Maxxia

Maxxia is based in Melbourne and is part of the McMillan Shakespeare (MMS) Group which, combined with its other subsidiary brands, is the largest provider of novated leasing and salary packaging services in Australia. Founded in 1988, MMS began operating as Maxxia across Australia (except for Queensland, where it’s known as RemServ).

In terms of the services at their disposal, they almost exclusively offer salary packaging. This isn’t limited to novated leasing, either, with numerous benefits available depending on your industry, such as additional superannuation, financial advice and even airport lounge memberships. In addition to this, Maxxia also offers car, home and contents and income protection insurance.

Capital Finance

Capital Finance is a financier who specialises in commercial vehicles and equipment. Established in 1995, it offers both direct financing for these products and an in-house brokerage service to help customers compare and access the most affordable products available to them. The industries they work with include transport, education, health and aged care and civil construction.

Unlike Maxxia, Capital Finance doesn’t tailor their service specifically to novated leasing or salary packaging. In addition to novated leases, it also offers financing in the form of both operating and finance leases, hire purchases and chattel mortgages.

FleetPartners

FleetPartners is another of the most popular lessors in Australia. As part of Eclipx Group, which specialises in fleet leasing and management and also counts FleetChoice and AutoSelect amongst its subsidiaries, FleetPartners has been operating for over 30 years across Australia and has also expanded to New Zealand.

Novated leasing and other salary packaging offers sit amongst its most popular services, but they also work closely with corporate fleet leasing and management, heavy commercial vehicle leasing and SME solutions. More recently, FleetPartners have also moved to offer and encourage solutions for zero-emission fleets.

Smartsalary

Smartsalary was formed in 1999 as a web-based comparison site but has since expanded its reach and operations to come under Smartgroup, which counts Macquarie Bank amongst its investors and Autopia and Smartfleet amongst its subsidiaries.

As the name suggests, salary packaging is the number one service offered by Smartsalary, with novated leasing front and centre as well. Through Smartleasing, which conducts the novated lease aspect of the business, you can also take out Lease Protection Insurance and Platinum Warranty Insurance. They’ve also rolled out their Carbon Offset Program, which allows you to contribute towards the planting of native forestation to offset vehicle emissions.

SG Fleet

SG Fleet has been offering novated leasing solutions in Australia since 1988 and was originally formed as a joint venture between the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Lease Way. Nowadays, under the SG Fleet Group, it’s expanded to New Zealand and the United Kingdom and has acquired other leasing companies like nlc, Fleet Hire and Motiva.

In addition to their novated lease and salary packaging services, SG Fleet offers an online car trade-in service and other fleet management services for businesses looking for more than one vehicle to lease. This includes big and small fleets and those involving commercial vehicles like trucks.

How do novated leasing companies receive their money?

Companies who offer novated leasing usually don’t fund the entire process themselves: they’re responsible for organising the product and packaging it together to offer to you. To cover the costs such as purchasing the vehicle and managing your repayments, they’re backed by a financier who provides them with the adequate funding to conduct the leasing.

When looking through the potential offers available on the market, you shouldn’t solely compare the novated leasing company: you should consider the financier that’s supplying the money where possible. There are a variety of financiers that provide funding for novated leasing services, which include the following:

Macquarie

Macquarie Bank is one of the leading financiers across the country when it comes to their involvement in financing novated leases. Of course, they’re far from limited to just these, with everyday and business banking, home loans and investing included in their portfolio of offered services.

Having been founded in Australia in 1969 as a subsidiary of Hill Samuel & Co. Limited, Macquarie has since grown to become an independent bank with global reach and bases in 25 countries. With its headquarters in Sydney, it continues to service Australians with a focus on business and commercial products.

ANZ

Similarly, ANZ is another lender who commonly works with novated leasing companies to provide them with financing. Formed in 1951, the bank has grown exponentially to now boast operations in 34 countries in addition to Australia and New Zealand.

As one of the Big Four banks in Australia (alongside Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and NAB), ANZ hold a significant share of the country’s market when it comes to banking, personal and business finance. It offers other types of commercial vehicle finance to direct customers, such as chattel mortgages, finance leases and hire purchases.

Pepper

Pepper is a very different type of financier compared to Macquarie and ANZ, operating as a non-bank lender offering mortgages, asset financing and other personal and commercial loans. They present themselves as an alternative to the big banks with a fully online and more specialised service.

In addition to novated leasing, you can also look for chattel mortgage and finance leasing options through Pepper. It services both Australia and New Zealand, while its parent company Pepper Financial Services Group has offices in the UK and Ireland, as well as in Europe and Asia.

Toyota Finance

Toyota Finance forms part of the world-renowned Toyota brand, focusing on offering finance solutions for their cars and other vehicles. Australia was home to the first Toyota Financial Services operation almost 40 years ago, which has since expanded to over 30 countries and six continents across the globe.

Offering both personal and business products to its customers including car loans, chattel mortgages and other small fleet products, novated leasing is one of the primary services offered. it’s important to note, though, that these are limited to the purchase or lease of Toyota models, narrowing your potential options.

Frequently asked questions about novated leasing

How long are novated leases?

You can choose the length of your novated lease term of anything between one and five years, affording you the opportunity to have a say in the cost of your monthly payments.

Can I go straight to a financier for my novated leasing?

You can – but it may not be worth your time. The benefit that novated leasing companies hold over going directly to the financier is that they do much of the heavy lifting for you. These companies help source your car and organise the intricacies of its maintenance in addition to managing your ongoing salary packaging arrangements, which is a luxury you’re unlikely to have by going direct. While you may save money in some instances, this won’t always be the case.

How does novated leasing save me on tax?

Salary packaging means that your employer is taking funds from your pre-tax income to cover the cost of the lease. Because of this, your taxable income will be reduced, thus enabling you to save on tax overall whilst still paying the same amount for your lease.

Do I have to pay GST on my car?

No – your employer can claim for GST on the purchase of the vehicle, which means you’ll have a 10% discount on the overall cost of the car to potentially save you thousands of dollars.

Is it cheaper to buy a car than lease it?

A five-year novated lease is cheaper than a five-year car loan, as you’re essentially paying for the right to use the car rather than its purchase price. However, continual leases over a longer-term period are likely to work out to be more expensive than purchasing the car, as you’ll have paid for your car in full within a maximum of seven years. Standard car loans don’t come with the same tax benefits, though.

What happens at the end of a novated lease?

You have several choices to make for your novated leasing agreement, all of which involve the residual payment placed at the end of every lease. These are as follows:

Pay the residual in full if you wish to keep the car
Sell or trade in the car to pay the residual and take out a new lease
Refinance the residual to extend the novated lease term

Is there a limit to how much I can package each year?

Yes – these are set by the ATO and are important to work within if you wish to avoid paying Fringe Benefits Tax. These differ depending on your industry, too, so it’s important to know where you sit so that you can avoid being taxed heavily. For instance, while health employees can package benefits up to just over $9,000 p.a., this number sits at almost $16,000 for charity employees.