If yours is not here, ask us directly — we would rather answer before you order than after.
No. TR 2021/2 substantially widened what counts as a commercial parking station — office, shopping centre and hospital car parks now qualify in circumstances where they previously did not. Car parks also open and close, and the threshold indexes annually. Last year’s position tells you very little about this year’s, in either direction.
By the shortest practicable route between the entrance of your car park and the entrance of the commercial parking station — not a straight-line radius, and not centre point to centre point. We apply TR 2021/2 para 17, which measures from the closest car entrance of your car park to the closest car entrance of the station. The route may be travelled by foot, car, train or boat — illegal or impractical shortcuts do not count. We test more than one route where the result is close to the boundary and include the maps in the evidence pack.
This is why we ask you to identify your vehicle entrance. A straight-line radius both includes stations that are out of range by any practicable route and excludes ones that are within it.
No — and this was settled against that view on 27 April 2026. In FCT v Toowoomba Regional Council [2026] FCAFC 50 the Full Federal Court held that a shopping centre car park was a commercial parking station, and that “commercial” does not require an intention to make a profit.
We assess each facility on its facts: we set aside every tariff tier that cannot cover six continuous hours between 7am and 7pm, then look at what remains. Free short-stay periods are irrelevant to the all-day test by definition, and ownership by a council, hospital or retail landlord is not disqualifying.
You get a report saying so, in terms your accountant can rely on and file, and you have paid the same fee. That is frequently the most valuable result we deliver — a documented negative finding removes the whole liability at that site, and removes it defensibly rather than by assumption.
No. We are independent car parking valuation specialists. We determine and evidence the rate; your tax agent applies it, chooses the benefit-counting method, and lodges the return. We are happy to speak directly with your adviser, your auditor or the ATO about how a rate was arrived at, at any point while we hold the records — at no charge.
Yes, as a prior year review. Rates for a closed year have to be reconstructed from archived publications and operator records, which takes longer and is not always possible to the standard we would want. We will tell you upfront if a site looks unlikely to reconstruct cleanly, before you commit.
The average cost method under s 39DA — the mean of the lowest all-day rate on the first and last days a benefit was provided. It suits most employers, needs no data from you, and requires no independent valuer.
The commercial parking station method requires a rate for every individual day, and the market valuation method requires a qualified valuer’s opinion. If your site looks like a candidate for either, we will say so rather than sell you the wrong report. More on the methods →
Because the measurement starts there. A building’s postal address and its car park entrance can be a hundred metres and a different street apart, which is enough to bring a station in or push it out of the 1 km radius. Where you give us an address without an entrance, we use our judgment and record the assumption in the report — but a dropped pin gives you a better answer.
Because the tariff board is rarely the lowest rate available to the public. Early bird products, weekly and monthly permits are usually cheaper, and permits are frequently not published anywhere. Under s 39E a periodic fee converts to a daily rate by dividing by the business days in the period, which can produce a figure well below the casual all-day price.
We confirm any permit is genuinely available on a come-and-go basis before relying on it, and we show the conversion arithmetic in the report. See the worked example →
Because the statutory test is whether a fee is charged in the ordinary course of business to members of the public — not whether it is advertised. Neither the FBTAA nor TR 2021/2 contains the words advertised, published, displayed or listed in relation to the valuation rate.
TR 2021/2 [53] sets out an exhaustive list of what the lowest fee cannot be: nil; worked out from longer-term parking where users are prevented from entering and exiting daily; or a fee not available to the public on the day. Availability, not publicity. And TR 2021/2 [41] expressly permits a daily fee to be worked out from a periodic one, footnoted to s 39E.
The ATO puts it beyond much doubt in its guidance on supporting information for a car parking objection, which asks for the rate used “for example, early bird rate, or monthly rate” and how it was discovered “for example, from the operator’s website, physically inspecting the commercial parking station, or phoning the operator”. Chapter 16, Example 13 then works a $272 monthly fee over 22 business days down to $12.36 a day.
What this does mean is that the evidentiary burden sits with you. With no tariff board to screenshot, you need a dated record of what was quoted, by whom, that it was come-and-go, and that it was available on the relevant day. That is precisely what our evidence pack is for.
Call us. We hold the evidence pack and working papers for seven years and will explain how any rate was determined — to you, your adviser, your auditor or the ATO — at no additional charge. That support does not extend to representing you or making submissions, which are tax agent services.
Give us the car park address and the dates a benefit was provided. We survey the rest and come back within 24 hours.