AccountRight Plus and Premier
From 1 January 2017, a new tax was introduced for working holiday makers who are in Australia on a 417 or 462 visa. This is sometimes referred to as the 'backpacker tax'.
The latest AccountRight versions have tax tables you can assign to these workers. Learn how to get the latest version.
Assigning the correct Working Holiday Maker tax table to an employee ensures:
the correct tax is withheld from the employee’s pay, and
the employee's pay will be reported correctly to the ATO via Single Touch Payroll.
To assign a Working Holiday Maker tax table
Go to the Card File command centre and click Cards List.
Click the Employee tab.
Click the zoom arrow to open the employee's card.
Click the Payroll Details tab.
Click Taxes tab (on the left).
Enter the employees Tax File Number. If they don't have one, they can apply for one and provide it to you. See this ATO information for all the details. If the employee hasn't provided their TFN, depending on the reason you can use one of these TFNs provided by 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.
FAQs
What if I need to change a working holiday maker's tax table throughout the year?
AccountRight will calculate the applicable tax to withhold from the first pay after changing the employee's tax table. However, previous pays and tax already withheld won't be taken into account.
So if you change an employee's tax table during the year, be aware that the employee might pay too much or too little tax for the year.
We suggest you speak to your accounting advisor or the ATO about the implications of changing tax tables during the year. This ensures you'll stay on the right side of the ATO's rules—and stay in the good books with the employee.