LG Professionals Welcome Easisalary

Read the below interview our Regional Manager Matt Shepherd recently did with LG publication Statewide and find out what we’re doing for Local Government professionals.


Welcome to our new Major Partner, easisalary

Easisalary is a familiar sight at LG Professionals WA conferences as sponsors of the coffee cart.

LG Professionals WA is pleased to welcome new Major Partner easisalary, part of the national easigroup, which also includes easifleet.

Regional Manager, Matt Shepherd, said the decision to partner with LG Professionals WA was motivated by a desire to help local government officers to get the best value out of salary packaging.

“easisalary has been heavily involved with LG Professionals WA for a number of years now,” he said, “and we have more than 60 local governments in WA using our products. We wanted to give something back to local government by becoming a Major Partner.

One of the reasons we became a Major Partner was to be able to give information sessions to local governments that want to learn more about salary packaging. We find people often don’t know what they can and can’t salary package, including superannuation, self-education, airport lounges and income protection insurance.

It’s all about education for local government officers and helping local governments to be employers of choice. In the current economic climate, we are seeing local governments looking at ways to give employees incentives in the most cost-effective way. Salary packaging gives a benefit with no cost at all to the local government – the employee carries the fee and we take care of the administration.

It’s important to make salary packaging as seamless as possible. We do this by taking away all the costs from the local government, while providing a great service to employees.

We work with local governments of all sizes, all over Western Australia. We can make presentations to staff in small shires outside of the city because it’s important that they get the same benefits and service as the large metro local governments.

A lot of people in remote areas don’t know that they can get a remote area benefit. This allows people who live and work in regional areas to salary package the interest-only part of their mortgage. They can salary package part of their rent and utilities, such as electricity and gas.

A novated lease for a passenger vehicle is the biggest item that people usually salary package, yet they generally don’t understand how a novated lease works. The standard approach packages all the running costs for the car. We obtained a private ruling that cleared us to offer a prestige novated lease that has more benefits for employees of eligible entities. It is structured to enable them to access a higher level of fleet discount on top of all the other benefits in a normal novated lease. It’s a great incentive for people in local government.

Local government employees can also salary package relocation costs if they are moving for work. In a recent package we completed, a local government CEO saved more than $30,000 in tax on their relocation, including the transport costs and costs related to the sale of their house.

If people are better educated about what’s involved in salary packaging, they are better able to make an informed decision – and that’s better for everybody.

If you’d like to find out more about salary packaging please call us on 1300 22 44 88 or fill out our contact form.