KPMG Australia and Geotab make it easier than ever to claim Fuel Tax Credits

SYDNEY, Australia – 09 April, 2024 - KPMG Australia and Geotab, the global leader in telematics technology, have announced a new alliance that enables KPMG’s clients to access Geotab technology, thereby expanding KPMG’s comprehensive fleet solution offering.   

A key example is KPMG’s FTC Automator, which analyses big data at speed and scale, and harnesses proprietary geo‐spatial analytics to process this data, before feeding it into the tax engine to produce Fuel Tax Credit (FTC) entitlement calculations. 

The alliance coincides with a favourable   ATO Product Ruling that ensures certainty over the tax implications of using the FTC Automator. Product rulings are important as they provide taxpayers with protection against penalty should the ATO subsequently dispute a claim made using the technology. 

The technology helps organisations calculate their entitlements  for credits on fuel excise, which apply to fuel used in plant, equipment, heavy vehicles and light vehicles (when not used on non‐public roads). (link to PR 2024/1) 

KPMG Australia’s National Leader for Workforce & Innovation, and Tax & Legal's Chief Technology Officer, David P Sofrà, said: “This is a direct response to market demand for a product that has undergone ATO review and testing ahead of its release of a formal, publicly available ruling. 

“The ATO Product Ruling sets out the Fuel Tax Credit consequences for KPMG Australia clients using Geotab to calculate their FTC entitlement using KPMG’s proprietary FTC Automator solution.   

“Our ability to provide businesses with access to Geotab’s market‐leading technology means not only are we able to support our clients with a holistic, end‐to‐end fleet technology solution that fulfils their needs, we also have a high degree of confidence in the quality, accuracy and frequency of the data we are able to ingest into the FTC Automator.”   

The FTC Automator is also able to surface important insights on safety, carbon emissions, fleet optimisation, as well as how viable it is for some, or all, of an organisation’s fleet to be electrified. 

Sofrà added: “Our clients are increasingly focused on other aspects of fleet management, such as Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) concerns, including safety and electrification. Having access to Geotab’s analytics and insights from over 4 million connected vehicles that use Geotab technology globally is a real boon for our clients and will support them in making informed decisions that are aligned with their strategic goals.” 

David Brown, Geotab’s AVP Sales – APAC, concurs: “KPMG Australia’s FTC Automator, now backed by an ATO Product Ruling, is a very welcome and timely addition to the Geotab ecosystem and we look forward to partnering with KPMG’s tax technology experts to develop additional, new solutions in the ever‐evolving fleet space.  Beyond tax, the telematics data KPMG is able to harness for its clients using Geotab will enable it to provide sector insights and industry‐peer comparisons on a number of key metrics such as CO2 emissions, fleet utilisation and various others relating to safety.”