With Extraordinary, employers only pay FBT on what employees actually spend, and only when they spend it. Unspent money comes back to the business. In our latest webinar, experts from tax, 2degrees and TaxLab joined Extraordinary to unpack what's changed in FBT this year and how to make Christmas gifting simple. Here are the highlights.

Who joined us

• Robyn Walker, tax advisor 
• Steven Zinsli, Founder & CEO, Extraordinary
• Kyrene Frisken, Tax Manager, 2degrees
• Matt Webb, TaxLab

What's new in FBT

Robyn kicked off with the questions her team hears most at Christmas.

Entertainment, FBT or PAYE? Team events with food and drink usually sit under the entertainment rules. Give staff a choice of when to enjoy it, like a meal voucher, and it's likely a fringe benefit.

More choices are coming. A bill before Parliament will let employers choose FBT or PAYE on unclassified benefits. It applies retrospectively from 1 April 2026.

Gift card type no longer matters. The open loop vs closed loop debate is settled. All gift cards go into FBT, with the option to pay PAYE instead.

The de minimis rule hasn't changed. $22,500 across all staff over 12 months. No more than $300 per employee per quarter.

The problem with plastic

Traditional gift cards come with three big headaches:

1. Breakage. $267 million has disappeared from NZ businesses on gift cards that were never spent (Finder).
2. Admin. Packing envelopes. Posting cards around the country. Chasing the ones lost in the mail.
3. Compliance. FBT is paid on the full amount given, even if the card ends up in the bin.

The Extraordinary way

Gifts land straight in employees' phones as a digital Mastercard, ready to spend instantly. Sending a gift takes less than five minutes.

Only pay FBT on what's spent, when it's spent. Unspent money comes back to the business. Extraordinary has returned more than $7 million to NZ businesses in the last 12 months.

How 2degrees made the switch

Before: line-by-line general ledger reviews, chasing managers, and three to five days of gift card prep for every FBT return.

After: a light check. Gifting data is already by employee ID, so it uploads straight into TaxLab.

2degrees sees around 75% utilisation. That's no FBT on the other 25%.

"The TaxLab upload is easy. There's no manipulation that you need to do whatsoever." — Kyrene Frisken, Tax Manager, 2degrees

Gifting meets FBT

Matt showed how Extraordinary data flows into TaxLab in a few clicks. TaxLab calculates the FBT, handles attribution and pooling to get the best rate, and prepares the return for filing through myIR.

FAQs

Do employers pay FBT on the amount loaded or the amount spent? The amount spent. With Extraordinary, FBT is only triggered when an employee spends.

What happens to money that isn't spent? It comes back to the business when the gift expires. There's no fee to return it.

Who sets the expiry date? The employer. One month, 12 months, two years. It's your call.

Watch the webinar recording

Robyn's worked FBT examples, the live TaxLab demo and the full Q&A are all in the recording.

Watch the recording

Something in it for you. Sign up to both TaxLab and Extraordinary by Friday 11 December 2026 and get 3 months free on TaxLab FBT. New customers only.

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