A public benevolent institution (PBI) is a non-profit institution organised for the direct relief of poverty, sickness, suffering, distress, misfortune, disability or helplessness. The characteristics of a PBI are:
- it is set up for needs that require benevolent relief
- it relieves those needs by directly providing services to people suffering from them
- it is carried on for the public benefit
- it is non-profit
- it is an institution, and
- its dominant purpose is providing benevolent relief.
Public benevolent institutions (PBIs) must be endorsed by the Australian Tax Office to access the following tax concessions:
- income tax exemption
- goods and services tax (GST) charity concessions, or
- fringe benefits tax (FBT) exemption.
Examples of PBIs are non-profit organisations that:
- provide hostel accommodation for the homeless
- treat sufferers of disease
- provide home help for the aged and the infirm, or
- rescue people who are lost or stranded.
As a result of accessing the FBT Exemption, employees of PBI Organisations are eligible to Salary Package up to $15,899.93 of tax free benefits per FBT year.
Please click the following link to view a salary packaging worked example for PBI Employees.