Forum Discussion

rosem's avatar
rosem
Experienced Cover User
3 years ago

Unused Annual Leave on employee resignation

Hello MYOB Community,

Our organisation is seeking advice on Unused Annual Leave when an employee resigns.

The payroll category for this is set-up as a Wages Item in MYOB AR.

Originally, this payroll category was set up as an ATO Reporting Category of Lump Sum A – Termination.

The ATO Reporting Category was changed to Gross Payments when it was identified that Lump Sum A – Termination is incorrect for employees who have resigned and have a balance of unused annual leave to be paid out as a part of their final pay.

Despite making the above change to the ATO Reporting Category MYOB tax calculations for employees who have resigned and are required to be paid for their Unused Annual Leave are higher than the Marginal Tax Rate for Ordinary Taxable Earnings (OTE).

Our last 3 employees have PAYG Withholding deductions calculated at the rates of 39, 43 and 45% of their gross wage payments.

Transaction entered into the Unused Annual Leave category also are not included as gross payments for superannuation guarantee calculations.

Can you please advise me if we will need to correct the MYOB  AR calculations for PAYG Tax and Superannuation Guarantee payments to be the equivalent of the value the employee would have been paid had they taken the leave.

 

Thank you kindly for anyone who can help in this regard, : )

 

Rose

  • Hi rosem 

     

    As we're not accountants or tax advisors we're not permitted to advise on what amounts need to be included in super guarantee calculations. If you're not sure you do need do check with the ATO.

     

    Please let me know if you need further help.

     

    If my response has answered your enquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.

  • Hi rosem 

     

    Thanks for your post. Gross wages are taxed as if they were all earned in that pay period. If the pay includes termination items PAYG should be manually calculated and adjusted as per the ATO calculations.

     

    For super not calculating on unused leave, go to Payroll Categories>>Superannuation>>open the Super guarantee>>click on Exempt and make sure the Unused leave category hasn't been ticked as this will exclude it from super calculations.

     

    Please let me know if you need further help.

     

    If my response has answered your enquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.

    • rosem's avatar
      rosem
      Experienced Cover User

      Thank you, Tracey,

      I have been going round and round searching online to find answers, and this subject has so many contradictions.

      The ATO declare that the Superannuation Guarantee does not apply to Termination payments of Unused Annual Leave, however Annual Leave Loading does:-

      https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Super-for-employers/Paying-super-contributions/How-much-super-to-pay/List-of-payments-that-are-ordinary-time-earnings/

      This is a contradiction to Annual Leave as Ordinary Time Earnings, which is categorised as gross wages and does attract the Superannuation Guarantee.

      If you are able to clarify this that would be great 😊

      My thoughts are that Unused Annual Leave should attract the Superannuation Guarantee, unless it is a lum sum payment when an employee is terminated due to an ETP genuine redundancy, in lieu of notice, a gratuity or 'golden handshake'etc.

      Thanks again,

       

      rose

      • Tracey_H's avatar
        Tracey_H
        Former Staff

        Hi rosem 

         

        As we're not accountants or tax advisors we're not permitted to advise on what amounts need to be included in super guarantee calculations. If you're not sure you do need do check with the ATO.

         

        Please let me know if you need further help.

         

        If my response has answered your enquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.