Extraordinary and TaxLab teamed up with Deloitte and 2degrees to show finance teams how to run Christmas gifting without the FBT headache. Gift cards come with a hidden cost: some of their value never gets spent, but you still pay FBT on the full amount, and the admin piles up every quarter. Watch the full recording to see a simpler way to gift, track and report.

Speakers

• Robyn Walker, Tax Partner, Deloitte
• Steven Zinsli, CEO, Extraordinary
• Kyrene Frisken, Tax Manager and Technical Accounting Lead, 2degrees
• Matt Webb, Senior Sales Representative, TaxLab

What’s new in FBT: Robyn covers when gifting falls under the entertainment rules, FBT or PAYE. A bill before Parliament would let employers choose FBT or PAYE on unclassified benefits, backdated to 1 April 2026. The open loop vs closed loop gift card debate is settled, and the de minimis rule hasn’t changed: no more than $300 per employee per quarter, and $22,500 across all staff in a year.

Only pay FBT on what’s spent: Steven shows how Extraordinary replaces plastic gift cards with a digital Mastercard on employees’ phones. FBT only applies when the money is spent, and any unspent money comes back to the business. Extraordinary has returned more than $7 million to NZ businesses in the last 12 months.

2degrees customer story: Kyrene shares how 2degrees cut its gift card FBT prep from 3–5 days to a light check. About 75% of gifted money is spent, so they pay no FBT on the other 25%.

TaxLab live demo: Matt shows Extraordinary data going into TaxLab, which calculates the FBT, handles attribution and pooling, 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 gift 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 or two years: it’s your call.

Does it matter if a gift card is open loop or closed loop?
No. All gift cards now go into FBT, with the option to pay PAYE instead.

‍