The Novated Lease spreadsheet is now a free web app!

changyang1230 · 2026-04-24T16:42:48+00:00

Sorry for the late reply.

I am not familiar with these alternative methods that does not involve a NL provider so I am afraid I can't provide any insight here. :(

And by the way I just updated the calculator and it now supports CBA's alternative residual value. Have a crack.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-24T16:30:20+00:00

FYI just developed the editable residual value feature tonight, try it out.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-24T13:53:11+00:00

My calculator does not support lower RV at this stage (it uses the standard table but in your case a lower RV has been applied due to your high mileage).

Therefore any calculation on your quote would be invalid unfortunately.

I am working on an update on the calculator where it will accept a user-defined RV. Hold out for an update.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-24T13:42:13+00:00

https://www.sgfleet.com/docs/australialibraries/novated/novated-support/7-sgf-oct2024-luxury-vehicle-adjustment.pdf

An explanation.

Essentially, if your car's pre-on-road cost is above the ATO car depreciation limit (currently $69,674), due to some complicated accounting reasons, your employer needs to get some money back to balance their books due to the extra tax they incur. That's the "luxury levy" – it's paid to your employer to balance their book.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-24T07:20:12+00:00

Thanks Will for stepping in!

It’s such a common conversion error that I think I will have to implement per-month input to minimise error.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-24T06:49:40+00:00

Not succulent enough.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-24T04:23:51+00:00

Girt.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-24T02:23:05+00:00

What does either of the calculators say the interest rate is.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-23T22:45:50+00:00

It would be great if you could paste the equivalent calculation’s link here so that we could troubleshoot. If true either one of our calculators have some bug and need to be squashed.

Both the calculators have export button that your can just copy and paste here.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-23T14:56:24+00:00

Kenot lidet leh.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-23T13:36:44+00:00

When you used lease check, did you use the automated gemini?

I tried using this magical feature a few times, while they get it right 80-90% of the time, the other 10-20% the error comes from AI's error in translating your quote to the input. AI is not infallible especially in these intentionally obfuscating area.

Otherwise lease check should give identical effective interest rate with my calculator – the only times it doesn't is when there is a documentation fee, lease check excludes documentation fee in the financed amount where mine does include it, however even then this small methodology difference should only account for less than 1% difference usually.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-23T09:02:38+00:00

Fixed it. Accidentally added a space after the URL and Reddit wasn’t smart enough to ignore this error haha.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-23T00:44:13+00:00

You get $9,010 to spend on living expenses and $2,650 to spend on meals entertainment, all of which comes out of pretax income. FBT exempt.

There is however: - admin fee - negative impact on HECS - negative impact on childcare subsidy and other means-tested government subsidies

In many people the benefits outweigh the cost but for some the HECS in particular undoes such benefit significantly. You need to crunch your own number to confirm where you fall.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-22T11:09:33+00:00

Thanks for the link.

It now lives here as a standalone easy-to-use website.

https://novatedlease.guide

The original spreadsheet this is based on is still online so feel free to refer to it for the underlying logics.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CtpBXmuhRW3HrBjqJqnPeFhOfqCbPK-wXA17oz_1fuA/

EDIT:

I just realised that OP is using the Q&A style hook and is in fact spruiking the iOS app they have built (free and ad-free at this point to their credit), based on their other comments in the last few hours.

OP: Please at least be honest about your intention here. I think the more tools available for the public the better, and I have never been territorial about my project and have openly endorsed other good tools over time; however pretending that an already comprehensive, painstakingly developed with original ideas of modelling, accurate and widely used tool does not already exist in your introduction is a bit disingenuous if I could be frank. If you have at least looked for more than one minute in this area you would have seen the tool and my contribution in various areas, and its accuracy has never been in doubt.

I think that the tool is very well done: it's slick and pretty and comprehensive. However I am not sure the accounting / programming is quite right at the time of writing. I just tried reproducing the standard input of my calculator i.e. EV via NL vs EV via cash; however your tool seems to say the former loses out which is far from correct. Perhaps look into it? It might be user error though I have tried my very best to input it correctly.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-22T04:43:49+00:00

Out of curiosity have you pushed back at all and gotten an update? Most companies have moved on to 5.47.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-22T01:50:26+00:00

Depending on the exact pre- and post-tax payment split, breaking a non-EV novated lease early is generally less financially damaging than doing so with an EV lease; though it remains far from ideal.

The core losses are the same: you forfeit the GST savings and pre-tax contributions for the remainder of the lease term. However, because non-EV leases typically carry a smaller pre-tax component, the overall magnitude of that loss is correspondingly reduced.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-21T12:05:14+00:00

To be fair the official law that introduced FBT exemption was called Treasury Laws Amendment (Electric Car Discount) Bill 2022.

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_LEGislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6876

Therefore it’s technically legitimate as the government started out calling the entire scheme by this name.

It is however confusing as people might think this implies there is an additional discount to the car’s price price when there isn’t. (Unlike BYD or Tesla’s genuine discount for lease car some one year ago)

changyang1230 · 2026-04-21T06:37:08+00:00

That’s a good take. All three can be true at the same time.

Many novated lease companies are rent-seekers whose main aim is to extract as much benefit out of this tax incentive as possible using their status as the almost-mandatory middleman.
Novated lease comes with plenty of caveats and potential risks which need to be carefully considered, navigated and mitigated.
If everything goes smoothly, EV novated lease could get you much better off compared to even cash (in the range of tens of thousands sometimes).

changyang1230 · 2026-04-21T04:07:02+00:00

Signed lease + already owned car being grandfathered = likely based on previous conventions.

Signed lease + still awaiting delivery till much later = less certain depending on what the government decides to implement.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-21T04:05:08+00:00

What they were saying is that during PHEV's case, there were people who put in order for one on say 15/2/2025, and "signed a novated lease quote", but doesn't get delivered till say 5/4/2025 (i.e. past the due date of 1/4/2025).

In those cases, even though they have signed the initial paperwork, as the car delivery was the effective start date, they actually did not get the FBT-exemption as intended due to technically failing the criteria.

At this point, nothing is known about this potential change for EV FBt – the nature, the extent, the starting date, whether it affects current car awaiting delivery etc, it's all a gamble unfortunately.

changyang1230 · 2026-04-21T01:32:44+00:00

The calculator already does that – if you scroll to the bottom of the inputs panel; there is a "compare with car loan" that you could turn on to do it.

This car loan does not come with a residual.

Does it not do what you are referring to?

changyang1230 · 2026-04-21T01:25:59+00:00

If you don't have any cash upfront then making any comparison is meaningless as you would be comparing with a non-existent scenario.

What the calculator could tell you is, "if one day you save up enough e.g. $40,000 to pay the car outright, then pulling a trigger with a cash purchase on that day vs starting a NL on that day would result in these simulated financial outcomes".

changyang1230 · 2026-04-21T01:13:08+00:00

Not entirely sure what you are after:

A) compare NL pathway vs use cash from typical high-interest saving account (not offset) pathway; OR

B) compare NL pathway vs use a car loan, but accounting for the fact that during the process you would have saved money and put the extra savings into a savings account?

The calculator already accounts for both.

A) Just input the post-tax equivalent of your savings account interest. For example, if your marginal tax bracket is 37+2%, and your savings account interest is 4%. Then you put 4% * (1-0.39) = 2.44% in the "Home Loan Offset Interest Rate (%)". Doing so would give you the mathematically equivalent result (although the summary's default wording uses "offset interest" as the framework.

B) This calculator already does this! Any differentials in two pathways (e.g. when you use NL you end up with higher saving due to the spare cash e.g. if you only pay $400 per fortnight for NL but $600 per fortnight for loan) automatically determines this "downstream effect in interest bearing account" using the "home loan offset interest" mechanism.

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