Forum Discussion

GriffAdmin's avatar
GriffAdmin
Experienced User
5 months ago
Solved

Working Holiday Maker - income from previous employer

We have a working holiday maker who earned an income before joining us, so he has now advised he should be charged tax at a higher threshhold. How do I record the income he earned with his previous e...
  • Celia_B's avatar
    Celia_B
    4 months ago

    Hi GriffAdmin,

     

    Thank you for getting back to us and providing an update. The working Holiday Makers tax table looks at the pay history of the employee to determine the gross amount paid and uses that in the calculation.

     

    To assign a Working Holiday tax table;

    • Go to the Card file command centre and click Card List. 
    • Click the employee tab
    • Click the zoom arrow to open the employee's card
    • Click the Payroll details tab 
    • Click Taxes tab 
    • Enter the employee Tax File Number. If they do not have one, they can apply for one and provide it to you. See this ATO information for all details. If the employee has not provided their TFN, depending on the reason you can use one of these TFNs provided the ATO.
    • In the tax table field, choose the applicable Working Holiday Maker tax table. If you're not sure which one to choose, check with the ATO. 
    • for the Income Type, choose Working holiday maker and choose the employee's country of origin 
    • Click OK. 

    You can also check on this link for tax table for working holiday makers.

     

    I hope this helps. Contact us again if have questions or concerns. We are happy to help. 

     

    Kind Regards, 

    Cel

     

Celia_B's avatar
Celia_B
MYOB Moderator

Hi GriffAdmin,

 

Thank you for getting back to us and providing an update. The working Holiday Makers tax table looks at the pay history of the employee to determine the gross amount paid and uses that in the calculation.

 

To assign a Working Holiday tax table;

  • Go to the Card file command centre and click Card List. 
  • Click the employee tab
  • Click the zoom arrow to open the employee's card
  • Click the Payroll details tab 
  • Click Taxes tab 
  • Enter the employee Tax File Number. If they do not have one, they can apply for one and provide it to you. See this ATO information for all details. If the employee has not provided their TFN, depending on the reason you can use one of these TFNs provided the ATO.
  • In the tax table field, choose the applicable Working Holiday Maker tax table. If you're not sure which one to choose, check with the ATO. 
  • for the Income Type, choose Working holiday maker and choose the employee's country of origin 
  • Click OK. 

You can also check on this link for tax table for working holiday makers.

 

I hope this helps. Contact us again if have questions or concerns. We are happy to help. 

 

Kind Regards, 

Cel

 

GriffAdmin's avatar
GriffAdmin
Experienced User
4 months ago

Thanks for the update. We spent substantial time this morning talking with MYOB support, the ATO and our accountant but the solution was inconclusive.

 

MYOB said that the ATO should have a record of how much was paid by the previous employer and that feeds through to MYOB giving MYOB the ability to calculate the correct tax rate. The gentleman I spoke to was adamant that, if the figure was wrong, the ATO would not hold us responsible for taking too little tax.

 

The ATO suggested we talk to the employee and see if the previous pay shows up on his MyGov account and, depending on the outcome, we could work out the correct tax rate.

 

Our accountant, instead, said that we should find out how much the employee had been paid in his previous job and load that into the Payroll Details>Pay History tab. He has now done that and, based on his calculations, MYOB was then able to calculate the correct tax rate, and the Historical figure he loaded did not feed through to the ATO as a payment from us.

 

I wonder if we will ever find out who is right?

  • gavin12345's avatar
    gavin12345
    Ultimate User
    4 months ago

    Hi GriffAdmin 

     

    You definitely don't want to do that! (update pay History). While your reported Gross and PAYG might look correct, the employee's Income Statement reported amounts come from the Pay History tab, so you are including in the income statement amounts earned and reported by previous employer. Remove and next reported pay will override previous.

     

    Ignore the advice from MYOB, and advice from your accountant. Most accountants don't know how MYOB works, so unless they use MYOB regularly, you should not get MYOB advice from them. It is just sad when MYOB itself provides incorrect advice.

     

    Bottom Line: As an employer, your legal obligation is to withhold PAYG based on the TFN Declaration provided. For WHM employees, the lower rate applies, until you as an employer pay the employer over $45k. Legally, based on how PAYG has been set up, it doesn't matter that the employee may have earned from other employers. Same applies for all employees - what they earn or earned from other employers does not factor in to your PAYG withholding obligation.

     

    Yes the employee may end up with a tax debt at the end of the year - however you are not responsible for that, the employee is. When submitting their TFN Declaration, the employee can request you take out extra tax. Or they can do this after their total from previous and current employer exceeds $45k. This seems to be what the ATO was indicating.

     

    There is no 'automatic' way to do this in MYOB. So it is up to the employee to keep track of earnings and if they want you to deduct a higher rate before earnings from you reach $45k, they can request this. If you deduct 15% for earnings under $45k you will not be penalised by the ATO.

     

    This has all been covered in previous forum posts, however as MYOB recently sacked almost all experienced support staff, current staff may not be aware of this.

     

    Regards

    Gavin

    • Celia_B's avatar
      Celia_B
      MYOB Moderator
      4 months ago

      Hi GriffAdmin,

       

      We want to thank gavin12345, for sharing insights to this post and I hope it helps you more with your concern. At MYOB we always wanted to make sure that we assist and provide resolutions to our customers using our tools and our resources. If you still need assistance do not hesitate to contact us again. We are more than happy to help. 

       

      Kind Regards, 

      Cel

       

    • GriffAdmin's avatar
      GriffAdmin
      Experienced User
      4 months ago

      Thanks @gavin12345 for clearing that up for us. We've passed the information to our accountant as well. 

      • Celia_B's avatar
        Celia_B
        MYOB Moderator
        4 months ago

        Hi GriffAdmin,

         

        Thank you gavin12345, for sharing insights and help our customers to resolve the issue. We are now closing this case, If you still need assistance in the future, please feel free to contact us again or create a new post. We are more than happy to help. 

         

        Cheers, 

        Cel