If your business is registered for GST (and you've reflected this in your GST settings), you'll use tax codes in MYOB to keep track of the tax you've paid and collected. Each tax code represents a particular type of tax.
MYOB has an extensive list of codes that can be used in a variety of situations—for example, when doing business with overseas customers, when tracking capital acquisitions, and so on.
Tax codes are only available in MYOB if your business is registered for GST. Also note that you can't yet delete existing ones.
You can edit tax codes, create new tax codes (except consolidated tax codes), delete some tax codes, combine some tax codes and assign tax codes to items or accounts.
If you need help with the tax codes applicable to your business, seek advice from your accounting advisor or the ATO.
Summary of tax types
All tax codes have a tax type, which can't be changed. The table below describes what each tax type is for.
Tax Type | Description |
|---|---|
Consolidated | This tax type is used for taxes that are made up of two or more tax codes or sub-taxes. |
Import Duty | Importers, who are bringing goods into Australia from other countries, should use this tax type. Tax codes with this tax type are used to record the import duty payable on a purchase order without changing the total amount of the purchase order. (The import duty is treated as a separate transaction since the duty is payable to the ATO, not to the company supplying the goods.) |
Sales Tax | This tax type is associated with the Wine Equalisation Tax. |
Goods & Services Tax | This tax type is associated with the Goods & Services Tax assigned to sales and purchases. This tax type also is used for GST-free goods and GST on Wine Equalisation Tax. |
Input Taxed | This tax type should be used by organisations, such as suppliers of financial services, that must pay GST on the purchases they make but don't collect GST from their clients or customers. The Input Taxed tax type also should be used by businesses that haven't registered for GST. |
Luxury Car Tax | This tax type is used by the Automotive industry to handle the luxury car tax. |
Voluntary withholdings | This tax type should be used for the PAYG voluntary withholdings scheme. |
No ABN/TFN | This tax type should be used for suppliers that have not quoted ABNs on their invoices, or for amounts that are withheld from investment income because no tax file number was quoted. This type indicates that the tax code is a PAYG Withholding tax type and will always be rounded down to the nearest dollar. You should use a No ABN/TFN tax code of 47% for suppliers who do not quote an ABN on invoices for more than $75 tax exclusive, or where amounts are withheld from investment income because no tax file number was quoted. If both of these situations apply to your company, you will need to create two tax codes to handle them separately. |
Create a tax code
You're not able to create a new consolidated tax code.
Go to the Accounting menu and click Tax codes to open the Tax codes list.
Click Create.
Complete the details of the tax code — these will vary depending on the Tax type you've chosen. Any fields marked * , such as Tax code, are mandatory. You may also need to choose a linked account for tax paid or collected (learn more about linked accounts).
Click Save.
Edit a tax code
What you can edit in tax codes
Only users with the Accountant/Bookkeeper or Administrator user roles and permissions can edit tax codes. See Users.
In most tax codes, you can edit all of the fields in a tax code except the Tax type:
If you change the Tax rate for a tax code, it won't change the rate for existing transactions which used that tax code.
You can also change or create a new Linked contact for tax authority.
In the N-T tax code, you're not able to change the Tax code, Tax type or Rate.
Go to the Accounting menu and click Tax codes to open the Tax codes list.
Click Tax code of the tax code you want to edit.
Make your changes.
You can only enter a maximum of 3 letters in the Tax code field.
Click Save to save your changes.
Combine tax codes
Merge two tax codes to remove any unused codes or if you are moving to Simpler BAS.
You can only combine tax codes that have the same:
rate
linked accounts
linked contacts (if a linked contact has been chosen).
You can't combine consolidated tax codes.
Choose the tax code to delete, and which tax code to move the deleted tax code's history to. All contacts, accounts and other records update to the new tax code.
If you use AccountRight, we recommend making a backup in AccountRight before combining tax codes.
Go to the Accounting menu and click Tax codes to open the Tax codes list.
Click Combine Tax Codes.
Choose the tax code you want to keep from the Move transaction history to list. This is the code the deleted code’s history moves to.
Choose the tax code to delete from the Delete this tax code list.
The next action cannot be undone
Before continuing, check you’ve selected the correct tax codes to combine. If you're not sure, click Go back.
Once you combine tax codes, the only way you can go back to the old tax codes is to restore from a backup (if you have AccountRight installed) and re-enter transactions posted using these codes since the backup. If you're not an AccountRight user and haven't created a backup before combining tax codes then this is not an option.
You can also edit some details of the combined tax code, such as the name, rate or linked accounts.
Click Combine.
Assign a tax code to an account
You can assign a tax code to any detail account in your accounts list. The tax code you assign will appear as the default tax code when you post a transaction to this account.
For example, you have assigned the GST tax code to your electricity expense account. When you settle your electricity bill in the Spend Money window and allocate it to this account, the GST tax code will appear in this window by default.
You can allocate a tax code to an account. To open this window, go to the Accounting menu > Chart of accounts, and click account name of the required account.
Assign a tax code to an item
When you set up an item, you must assign a tax code to use when selling it.
These item tax codes will appear by default when buying and selling your items unless you have specified that the customer or supplier tax code is to be used instead.
You assign tax codes to items in the following tabs of the item:
Buying and Selling section
Profile section.
For more information, see Creating items.