Can Department of Education (Victoria) employees bring their own novated lease finance?

Yes — we have done it

Yes. millarX has arranged externally financed novated leases for Department of Education (Victoria) employees, with the existing salary packaging administrator continuing to manage the payroll deductions.

What this is based on:

Last verified September 2026. Arrangements change, and they can differ between agencies and business units — your employer confirms what applies to you.

Department of Education (Victoria) employees can keep their existing salary packaging administrator and replace only the finance portion of a novated lease with a millarX loan — payroll deductions, running-cost budgets and the administrator all stay the same.

What you need to do

  1. Get a finance quote to compare — Price the car you are actually looking at. You need a real number to put next to the bundled quote — the difference is almost entirely in the interest rate, and that is the part the bundled quote does not itemise.
  2. Hand the approval to Maxxia — They need written finance approval, the dealer invoice and the lease schedule. We send all three in the format administrators file without asking twice, and we chase what is outstanding rather than leaving it with you.
  3. Everything else stays as it is — Maxxia continues to run your payroll deductions, running-cost budgets and FBT reporting exactly as before. Nobody at work has to do anything differently.

The question to send payroll

Copy this as it is. It names no finance provider, so it asks about your own arrangement rather than requesting anyone in particular.

I'm looking at taking out a novated lease. Could you confirm whether I'm able to arrange the finance on the vehicle myself — sometimes called a self-managed or BYO finance novated lease — and have Maxxia administer it, rather than using the financier bundled into the quote? If that's possible, what does Maxxia need from the financier to set it up?

The arrangement you are asking for is called a self-managed novated lease. If you want the detail first, how it works, step by step.

See what it is worth before you commit

Upload the bundled quote you are holding and we will line up every contracted dollar against an externally financed lease. No email needed to see the result. Compare my quote.

The swap that could save you thousands

The loan hiding inside your Department of Education (Victoria) lease carries a quiet markup. Swap it for a millarX loan — that's it. Nothing else changes, nobody at work does anything differently, and the difference stays in your pocket.

A novated lease is two things. You only need to change one of them.

Every novated lease is finance (the loan on the car) plus management (payroll deductions, budgets, running costs). Your Department of Education (Victoria) administrator handles the management brilliantly — but the bundled finance usually carries a hidden margin. BYO swaps just that part.

Your journey, step by step

  1. Quote — MILLARX
  2. Finance approval — MILLARX
  3. Finance settlement — MILLARX
  4. Car collection — YOU
  5. Paperwork to salary packager — MILLARX HELPS. Our automated system guides you through it
  6. Ongoing management — PACKAGER

millarX handles

Your salary packager handles

Department of Education (Victoria) employees are packaged through Maxxia. Nothing about that changes.

What your salary packager asks for — and how we make it easy

A BYO lease asks your administrator for the same paperwork any novated lease does. The difference is who chases it. Here is every item they'll want, and what happens on our side of it.

Written confirmation your finance is approved
We send the formal approval — lender, amount, term, residual — the day it comes through, in the format administrators file without asking twice.
The dealer quote or tax invoice for the car
We check the invoice is made out correctly before it goes anywhere, then forward it. A wrong purchaser or GST treatment is the single most common cause of a delayed settlement.
The lease documents and lease schedule
millarX prepares and settles the lease, so the schedule showing rate, term, residual and repayment already exists when they ask for it.
A deed of novation for you and your employer to sign
The administrator issues it. We complete the finance side, explain the two pages that matter, and chase the signatures — the employer execution is arranged through your administrator, not by you.
The exact repayment and start date, to set your payroll deduction
We confirm both in writing and time settlement so your first deduction lands on a full pay cycle rather than a part one.
A comprehensive insurance certificate noting the financier
We give you the exact wording your insurer needs to record millarX as the interested party, so it is right the first time.
Your running-cost budget — kms, fuel or charging, servicing, tyres, rego
This one stays entirely with your administrator. BYO changes the finance only, so the budget you set with them is untouched.

Can Victorian Department of Education teachers use their own novated lease finance?

The Department of Education (Victoria) has contracted Maxxia to administer salary packaging for teaching service employees — administration, not car finance. The published policy approves “a novated lease on an approved motor vehicle” as a benefit item and lists what the administrator does; providing the loan on the car is not on that list, and no financier is named anywhere in it. The policy is silent on finance, so whether a self-financed lease can be administered is a question for Maxxia rather than something the salary packaging policy decides — and Maxxia has confirmed to millarX that it can, with millarX having arranged exactly that for employees here.

Victorian teachers are routinely told Maxxia is the only option. Maxxia is the only salary packaging administrator — which is not the same thing as the only lender.

The Department’s Policy and Advisory Library sets out the arrangement in one sentence:

“The department has outsourced the administration of salary packaging arrangements for teaching service employees to Maxxia Pty Ltd effective 1 November 2022.”

The word carrying the weight there is administration. The same policy spells out what the administrator was engaged to do:

  • “provision of a Salary Package Schedule confirming the employee’s salary packaging arrangements”
  • “payment of the selected benefit item(s)”
  • “provision of reports to employees”
  • “undertaking full reconciliation of salary packages”
  • “obtaining and storing benefit payment substantiation for Australian Taxation Office compliance and audit purposes”
  • “communicating directly with employees in relation to salary packaging”
  • “answering queries in relation to salary packaging”

Financing a car appears nowhere on that list. The benefit item the policy approves is “a novated lease on an approved motor vehicle” — a lease on a car, with no financier named.

What the policy does not say

It does not say a teaching service employee may choose their own financier, and we are not going to pretend it does. It is silent on finance altogether. What it does establish is that the Department’s arrangement with Maxxia is an administration arrangement — so the finance sits outside it, and whether a lease you have financed yourself can be administered is a question for Maxxia.

In practice Maxxia administers externally financed novated leases for employers that permit them. Ask for a “BYO finance” or “self-managed finance” novated lease — the wording matters, because a consultant working from a bundled quote may not recognise the request in any other form.

Who signs off on the novation — the Department or my school?

This is the question Victorian teachers ask us most, and the answer sits in the Department’s employment policy rather than its packaging policy. Teaching service employees are employed by the Department, not by their school:

  • “Persons are employed by the Department as teaching service employees under Part 2.4 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006”
  • “the Secretary, on behalf of the Crown, has all the rights, powers, authorities and duties of an employer in respect of teaching service and public service employees.”

So the employer party to a deed of novation is the Department — not your school council, and not your principal in a personal capacity. There is nothing for a principal or a school business manager to sign. (School councils do employ some staff in their own right under Part 2.3, and for those employees the packaging policy is narrower: “School council employees may also salary package using Maxxia, however, superannuation is the only packaging benefit available.”)

What that means in practice is that you do not go hunting for a Departmental signature yourself. Our understanding is that the novation documents go to Maxxia as the Department’s contracted administrator and the employer execution is obtained through them — that is how these are handled, rather than a procedure the Department publishes step by step. If Maxxia tells you something different for your lease, ask them in writing who the employer signatory is and send it to us: we deal with the administrator directly so you don’t have to.

Already holding a Maxxia quote?

A bundled novated quote states a fortnightly figure, not the interest rate sitting inside it. millarX can pull the finance component out of your Maxxia quote and show you the rate you are actually being charged, and the difference in dollars over the term.

Compare the finance in your quote

If the millarX finance is sharper, we prepare the approval and the lease documents in the format Maxxia expects and hand them over. Your pre-tax deductions, running-cost budgets, fuel or charging card and Maxxia account all carry on exactly as they are.

Before you accept a bundled quote, the question to put to Maxxia is:

“Can you administer a novated lease where I arrange the finance myself — a BYO or self-managed finance lease — and will you arrange the Department’s execution of the novation deed?”

If the answer is no, ask for that in writing along with the provision of the Department’s arrangement that prevents it. Send it to us and we will take it from there.

Source: Department of Education (Victoria) — Salary Packaging, Teaching Service. Policy and Advisory Library. Carries the Maxxia administration statement, the approved benefit items including “a novated lease on an approved motor vehicle”, the list of the administrator’s major functions, and the school council employee limitation.

Source: Department of Education (Victoria) — Employment: Legal Basis. Policy and Advisory Library. Establishes that teaching service employees are employed by the Department under Part 2.4 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, and that the Secretary holds the employer’s powers on behalf of the Crown.

Already holding a bundled quote? Prove it against ours.

Drop the quote in and we'll line up every contracted dollar against a millarX BYO lease — in plain English, no email needed to see the result. Compare your quote.

People who BYO'd and kept the difference

I cannot speak highly enough of the team at MillarX, and the founder Ben. Like a lot of people, I was locked into a particular novated leasing company as dictated by my employer. The car finance portion of the contract they offered did not look competitive compared to other options. I thought that I just had to accept it and look at the savings in income tax as a bonus to offset the fact the finance portion of the arrangement was not as sharp as some other lenders. A work friend put me on to MillarX, and all the info they have on their website about BYO finance. The staff I spoke to at the novated leasing company were either willfully opaque or perhaps just woefully ill informed, but three different people I spoke to made it sound like that was NOT an option, but Ben explained it all to me and once I understood, I had the confidence to call back and insist I speak with someone about the BYO finance option. Ben saved us over $10k in repayments on the car loan over 5 years!! Ben is very patient, transparent and aims to make you feel informed and empowered to make smart choices. Do not accept a terrible interest rate out of the gate from a novated leasing company — find out if you can BYO finance, and make sure you contact Ben for a quote.

Fleur Bedford — 5-star Google review

GOATed novated leasing experience. Full transparency, no pushy sales tactics, and reasonable rates. Can't thank the team enough for sorting out my NL in 2 business days. Incredible.

Hudson Yao — 5-star Google review

Fair questions

Is BYO finance actually allowed under my salary package?
Yes. Salary packaging rules govern how the lease is administered, not who provides the finance. Administrators package externally-financed leases routinely.
Is a self-managed novated lease the same as BYO finance?
Yes. Self-managed, BYO (bring your own) finance, finance-only, employee-arranged and externally financed all describe the same arrangement: you source the finance on the car and your existing salary packaging administrator continues to run the deductions. The business that arranges that finance for you is sometimes called a third party introducer — that is the role millarX plays, as a credit assistance provider under its own Australian credit licence. Providers differ over which word they use, so being told they do not offer one of them is often a vocabulary mismatch rather than a policy. If one term is not recognised, ask again using another.
Does the Victorian Department of Education allow teachers to use their own novated lease finance?
The Department’s salary packaging policy states that it “has outsourced the administration of salary packaging arrangements for teaching service employees to Maxxia Pty Ltd effective 1 November 2022”, and lists the administrator’s functions — a Salary Package Schedule, paying benefit items, reporting, reconciliation, substantiation, communication and answering queries. Providing the finance on the car is not among them, and the approved benefit item is simply “a novated lease on an approved motor vehicle”, with no financier named. The policy neither grants nor refuses a choice of financier; it is silent on finance. The practical question therefore goes to Maxxia: ask whether they will administer a BYO or self-managed finance novated lease. If they decline, ask for the refusal in writing and for the provision of the Department’s arrangement that prevents it.
Who signs the novation agreement for a Victorian government school teacher — the Department or the school principal?
The Department. Teaching service employees are employed by the Department under Part 2.4 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, and the Secretary “on behalf of the Crown, has all the rights, powers, authorities and duties of an employer in respect of teaching service and public service employees”. A school principal is not the employer and has nothing to sign in a personal capacity. In practice the novation documents are provided to Maxxia as the Department’s contracted salary packaging administrator and the employer execution is obtained through them, so an employee does not need to find a signatory inside the Department themselves. School council employees are employed separately under Part 2.3, and for them the packaging policy allows superannuation only.
Is Maxxia the only novated leasing option for Victorian teachers?
Maxxia is the only salary packaging administrator the Department has contracted for teaching service employees, and that part does not change — Maxxia continues to run the payroll deductions, the running-cost budgets and the claims. It does not follow that the loan on the car has to come from the finance bundled into a Maxxia quote. A novated lease is finance plus administration, and BYO finance replaces only the finance while leaving the Maxxia side of the arrangement untouched.
Will my administrator push back?
It's business as usual for them — we hand over the documents in the format they expect, and we deal with them directly so you don't have to.
Does anything change for payroll?
No. Your pre-tax deductions, running-cost budgets and reporting all continue through your administrator exactly as before.
What if I leave Department of Education (Victoria)?
Same as any novated lease — the finance travels with you. You can re-novate with a new employer or continue repayments directly.
I work part-time / casual — does this still work?
If you're eligible for salary packaging with your employer, you're eligible to BYO the finance. The saving works the same way.
Where does the saving come from?
The finance bundled into a novated quote usually carries a margin on top of the lender's rate. BYO replaces that finance with a transparent millarX loan on the same car and the same term — the management side of the lease is untouched.

Ready to keep the difference?

Request a BYO finance quote — we'll price the car you're looking at and show you exactly what to hand your Department of Education (Victoria) administrator. enquiries@millarx.com.au · 1800 498 500 · ABN 15 681 267 818 · ACL 569484