Payroll Maintenance - Tax tab

Owned by Richard Kennedy (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 20, 2022
6 min read

Use the Tax tab to maintain:

  • Taxation details including:

    - Tax File Numbers (AU) and IRD Numbers (NZ)
    - Tax scales (AU) or Tax codes (NZ)
    - Medicare surcharge and levy details (AU) 
    - Employment basis (e.g. full time) (AU)
    - Income types
    - Super details
    - ABN details, if relevant.
  • Tax reporting details including:

    - Rebates
    - Fringe Benefits Tax
    - Foreign Employment Income (FEI) tax
    - Foreign Employment Income Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) tax
  • Other taxation details including:

    - PAYG details
    - Single Touch Payroll submission details.


 Opening the Tax tab

To open the Tax tab:

  1. Select Payroll > Payroll Employee Maintenance from the main menu.
    The Set Payroll Search Criteria window is displayed.
  2. Search for the employee payroll record for the staff member. See Searching for payroll employees.
    The Personal tab of the Payroll Maintenance window is displayed.
  3. Click the Tax tab.
    The Tax tab of the Payroll Maintenance window is displayed.

    - Australian organisations see the following version:



    - New Zealand organisations see the following version


Payroll Maintenance - Tax tab key fields and buttons (Australia)

 Click here to view Australian fields and buttons

Taxation Details area fields (Australia)

Field

Description

Tax File Number

Tax File Number (TFN) used by the Australian Taxation Office.

Supplied by the employee on the tax declaration form filled in at the commencement of employment.

Note: This field is automatically populated when declarations are entered on the Declarations tab of Payroll Maintenance. For information about recording declarations, see Payroll Maintenance - Declarations tab.

Note: You will see the following window if the entered Tax File Number has been assigned to an existing employee.

ABNAustralian Business Number (ABN) for contractors.
Tax Scale

Tax scale that applies for the employee based on information supplied at the commencement of their employment.

Note: Whenever tax rates change, your administrator will receive a text file from Synergetic Management Systems that they can import. See Loading new tax rates.

Note: For Australian organisations, selecting a tax scale automatically populates values 1, 2, 3 and 5 of the Tax treatment code. See the Tax Treatment Code field (below).

Medicare Levy Surcharge

Medicare levy surcharge tier imposed on the payroll employee.

You can select:

  • 1 - Tier 1
  • 2 - Tier 2
  • 3 - Tier 3
  • X - No Medicare levy surcharge.

Note: The Medicare levy surcharge is imposed on payroll employees that do not have health insurance and earn above a specified level of income.

Medicare Levy Reduction

Number of dependents used to calculate the Medicare Levy reduction for the selected payroll employee.

You can select:

  • 0 - Spouse
  • 1 to 9 - Number up to nine dependents
  • A - Ten or more dependents
  • X - No Medicare levy reduction.

Note: The Medicare Levy Reduction is determined based on the amount of taxable family income and the number of dependents.

Tax Treatment Code

An ATO mandatory field included in every STP pay event that will indicate the PAYGW tax scales and other components that have been applied by the payer to determine payee withholding amounts.  ATO defines the allowed values, and Synergetic constructs the six character code derived from:

  • Tax Scale field (characters 1, 2, 3 and 5)
  • Medicare Levy Surcharge field (character 4)
  • Medicare Levy Reduction field (character 6).

Note: The following window is displayed when you change the tax treatment code for a payroll employee with an open pay:.

Employment basis

Employment basis of the selected payroll employee.

You can select:

  • F - Full time
  • P - Part time
  • C - Casual
  • L - Labour hire
  • V - Voluntary agreement
  • D - Death beneficiary
  • N - Non-employee.

Note: This field is linked to the Employment Status field on the General tab of Payroll Maintenance. See Payroll Maintenance - General tab.
When you update this field, the following window is displayed to allow you to update the value on the General tab:

Note: The Employment Basis field has more values than the Employment Status field on the General tab of Payroll Maintenance. See Payroll Maintenance - General tab.
The following window is displayed when you select an value that does not exist in the Employment Status field:

Note: The value on the Tax tab is reported to the ATO.

Tip: This field value can be manually entered. 

Super Tax Percent

Percentage of tax to pay on superannuation, if overriding the default. If blank this field will calculate based on the level of income.

Note: This is only relevant if an employer paid superannuation contribution tax scheme is active for your country. This field is not used in Australia.

Super Liability/OTE Submit

Select an option from the drop-down list to determine which superannuation liability fields are included in Single Touch Payroll submissions for the selected payroll employee. You can select:

  • Only submit Super liability
  • Only submit Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE)
  • Submit both.

Note: This field is only visible if the Calculate and Submit OTE field is selected on the General tab of the Payroll Configuration window. See Payroll Configuration - General tab.

Reporting Amounts area fields (Australia)

Field

Description

Dependant Rebate

Full amount of the dependent spouse rebate claimed for the year.

Reportable Fringe Benefits

Amount of fringe benefits tax required to be reported to the tax office.

If you provide any employee benefits that are taxable, where the total taxable value of those fringe benefits exceeds the FBT (fringe benefits tax) limit in a FBT year, you are required to report an amount on the employee's payment summary. Contact the ATO for the current FBT limit.

Tax Offset Amount

Estimated total tax offset amount claimed by the payroll employee on their withholding declaration form.

Note: This field is only displayed for Withholding declarations.

Note: The tax offset amount must be a positive whole number.

Note: The Tax offset Amount field is also displayed on the Details sub-tab of the Declarations tab of Payroll Maintenance. The values of the two fields are synchronised. See Payroll Maintenance - Declarations tab - Details sub-tab.

FEI Tax PaidAmount of Foreign Employment Income (FEI) tax paid by the payroll employee.
JPDA Tax PaidAmount of Joint Petroleum Development Area tax paid by the payroll employee.

Other area fields (Australia)

Field

Description

PAYG Summary Printed / Date

This field is automatically selected when you print your PAYG Summaries at the end of the financial year.

If you print a summary for an employee at some other time, select this to show that the summary has been printed and when.

Income Type

Type of income paid to the employee. For example, Salary or wages.

Final STP Event for Financial Year

Mark an employee as finalised for the financial year.

Tip: You can set this value in bulk using the Bulk Set Final Event Indicator for STP window. See Setting the Final Event Indicator in Bulk.

Last SubmissionShows the status of the Final STP Event for Financial Year field as at the Date and Time of the last STP Event for the employee. Also displays the Submission number of that last submission.


Payroll Maintenance - Tax tab key fields and buttons (New Zealand)

 Click here to view New Zealand fields and buttons

Taxation Details area fields (New Zealand)

Field

Description

IRD Number

IRD Number used by the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department.

Supplied by the employee on the tax declaration form filled in at the commencement of employment.

Note: This field is automatically populated when declarations are entered on the Declarations tab of Payroll Maintenance. For information about recording declarations, see Payroll Maintenance - Declarations tab.

Note: You will see the following window if the entered IRD Number has already been assigned to an existing employee.

ABNAustralian Business Number (ABN) for contractors.
Tax Code

Tax code that applies for the employee based on information supplied by the employee upon the commencement of their employment.

Note: Whenever tax rates change, your administrator will receive a text file from Synergetic Management Systems that they can import. See Loading new tax rates.

Super Tax Percent

Percentage of tax to pay on superannuation, if overriding the default. If blank this field will calculate based on the level of income.

Note: This is only relevant if an employer paid superannuation contribution tax scheme is active for your country. This field is not used in Australia.

Reporting Amounts area fields (New Zealand)

Field

Description

Dependant Rebate

Full amount of the dependent spouse rebate claimed for the year.

Reportable Fringe Benefits

Amount of fringe benefits tax required to be reported to the tax office.

If you provide any employee benefits that are taxable, where the total taxable value of those fringe benefits exceeds the FBT (fringe benefits tax) limit in a FBT year, you are required to report an amount on the employee's payment summary. Contact the ATO for the current FBT limit.

Tax Offset Amount

Estimated total tax offset amount claimed by the payroll employee on the Withholding declaration form.

Note: This field is only displayed for Withholding declarations.

Note: The Tax offset Amount field is also displayed on the Details sub-tab of the Declarations tab of Payroll Maintenance. The values of the two fields are synchronised. See Payroll Maintenance - Declarations tab - Details sub-tab.

Other area fields (New Zealand)

Field

Description

PAYG Summary Printed / Date

This field is automatically selected when you print your PAYG Summaries at the end of the financial year.

If you print a summary for an employee at some other time, select this to show that the summary has been printed and when.

Income TypeType of income paid to the employee. For example, Salary or wages.