Rules for correcting GST errors

The Tax Office offers a guide on how to correct GST errors made on earlier activity statements on a later activity statement provided certain conditions are met.

 

A GST error is a mistake made in working out the net GST amount when you report too much GST or report too little GST.

 

Errors made in relation to fuel tax credits, wine equalisation tax or luxury car tax are not considered to be GST errors.

 

To correct GST errors which resulted in you paying too much, all of the following conditions must be satisfied:

• The correction is made within the 4 year time limit;
• It is not subject to a compliance activity; and
• It has not already been corrected in another reporting period.

 

To correct GST errors which resulted in you paying too little, all of the following conditions must be satisfied:

• It is not subject to a compliance activity;
• It has not already been corrected in another reporting period;
• The error was not a result of recklessness or intentional disregard of a GST law;
• The correction is made within the period that is determined by your GST turnover, which is either 12 or 18 months; and
• The net sum of the error is within the taxpayer’s error value limit.

Click here to access the guide.

 

Amending Payment Summaries

There are various reasons why you would need to amend a payment summary and the following outlines just a few:

• If you made a mistake with any of the amounts in your completed PAYG payment summary statement and you have already sent it to the ATO
• If you have amended any of the amounts of the payment summaries issued to payees
• If you are sending payment summaries that you did not send before
• If you reported an incorrect RESC value
• If you did not include all the wages categories used throughout the payroll year

There is a process that the ATO requires you to follow in sending an amended EMPDUPE file or NEW payment summary. All amendments must be reported to the ATO within 21 days after providing the amended payment summary to the employee.

From the ATO website:
The amended annual report file must only contain amended payment summaries and any additional original payment summaries that were not reported in a prior annual report for the same financial year. Do not include payment summaries that were previously sent and were not amended.


Lodging Electroncially:
It is possible to lodge amended PAYG Payment Summary electronically with the ATO using the BAS portal if your software produces an amended EMPDUPE file. The following shows the process for the main accounting software packages and where this isn’t possible, the manual process.

 

 

MYOB
Current versions of MYOB are unable to create an amended EMPDUPE file, therefore our solution is to lodge the Amended Payment Summary using GovReports.

1. Use MYOB to re-issue the payment summary to the employee/s
2. Re-create the EMPDUPE file—MYOB will create the EMPDUPE file with all employees in it
3. Upload to GovReports and ONLY tick the employee/s that have been amended—do not re-lodge all employees (unless all have been amended)
4. OR manually create the amended payment summary following the GovReports instructions, manually entering values for selected employee/s

Reckon

1. Un-publish the original payment summaries—you need to un-publish all employees
2. Make the corrections to the relevant employee/s
3. Re-generate payment summaries
4. Select those employees that need to be amended by selecting “yes” to be amended
5. Select “Publish All” to republish
6. Select General EMPDUPE file - you then get an option to download all payment summaries OR amended payments summaries only.
7. Select “Amended” which will then download the new EMPDUPE file

Intuit Quickbooks Online

1. Go to the Employees menu and click Process Payment Summaries.
2. Select the Tax Year (do not select any tax year prior to 2007/08).
3. Select Generate Payment Summaries as 'Amended'.
4. In the employees list, select only the employees that have had payment summary information amended.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Electronic File to create an EMPDUPE file and select a location to save it. The EMPDUPE file will indicate that the payment summary has been amended

Xero

1. Un-publish the original payment summary of the employee/s you need to amend—this will unlock the payroll data. You only need to un-publish the payment summaries you need to amend.
2. Make corrections to relevant employee/s
3. Publish the payment summary for relevant employee/s and tick YES to produce an amended payment summary
4. Reprint or email the amended payment summary to the employee/s
5. Remember you cannot report ETP amounts in Xero, the ETP payment summary must be done manually on the ATO form and posted to the ATO.

See this link for the full how-to instructions:
Xero Help - xero.com/help/PayrollEOFYTroubleshoot.htm


Saasu

Saasu does not currently have the facility to produce an amended payment summary.

1. Make corrections to relevant employee/s
2. Re-create the payment summaries. Saasu will produce payment summaries for all employees
3. The EMPDUPE file will include all employees whether they have been amended or not
4. See the instructions above for MYOB. Lodge the amended EMPDUPE file via GovReports or the PAYG payment summary statement paper form via mail to the ATO.

Lodging via Mail
If your software does not produce an amended payment summary and you do not have a GovReports subscription, you will need to lodge the amended payment summary statement via mail, by completing a paper form and posting it to the ATO.

You will need to order the paper forms.

Mail form to:
Australian Taxation Office
Locked Bag 50
PENRITH NSW 2740

Looking ahead for the Payroll Year 2014/15

If your payroll has 53 weekly or 27 fortnightly pay periods, you may need to withhold extra tax.

 Using the usual weekly or fortnightly tax tables may result in a shortfall of tax paid by the employee.

The employer should notify the employees early in the year if this is the case, and give the employees the option to have extra tax withheld as per the ATO guidelines for this situation.

 

When there are 53 pay periods in a financial year
In some years, you may have 53 pay periods instead of the usual 52.

As the tax schedule is based on 52 pays, the extra pay may result in insufficient amounts being withheld. You should let your employees know when this occurs so if they are concerned about a shortfall in tax withheld, they can ask you to withhold the additional amount in the table below.
 

Weekly Earnings               PAYG to Withhold
$725 to $1,524                  Additional PAYG $3
$1,525 to $3,449               Additional PAYG $4
$3,450 and over                Additional PAYG $10

 

 

 

When there are 27 pay periods in a financial year
In some years, you may have 27 pay periods instead of the usual 26.

As the tax schedule is based on 26 pays, the extra pay may result in insufficient amounts being withheld. You should let employees know when this occurs so if they are concerned about a shortfall in tax withheld, they can ask you to withhold the additional amounts in the table below.
 

Fortnightly Earnings         PAYG to Withhold
$1,400 to $3,049              Additional PAYG $12
$3,050 to $6,799              Additional PAYG $17
$6,800 and over               Additional PAYG $42

Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions

Reportable employer superannuation contributions are additional contributions made to a superannuation fund on behalf of an employee.
Reportable contributions must be reported on an employee's payment summary because they may affect the employee's tax liability and their eligibility for various government benefits.
Generally, reportable contributions include:

• Contributions made under a salary sacrifice arrangement; and
• Additional amounts paid to an employee's superannuation fund as directed by the employee.

Extra superannuation contributions negotiated under an individual employment contract are usually considered reportable contributions, unless either of the following is demonstrated:

• The additional contributions are made for administrative simplicity; or
• A policy is documented, proving that the employee is not allowed to influence the contributions made by the employer on their behalf.

The following items are not regarded as reportable contributions:

• All superannuation guarantee contributions (minimum compulsory contributions);
• Compulsory contributions required by the governing rules of a superannuation fund or by a Commonwealth, state or territory law; and
• Employer contributions made under a collectively negotiated industrial agreement.

Click here for more information.

Proposed changes to fuel tax credits

Fuel tax credits provide a credit for any fuel tax (excise or customs duty) included in the price of fuel used in business activities, machinery, plant and equipment or heavy vehicles.


From July 1, 2014, if legislation remains unchanged, most fuel tax credit rates will change due to increases in the carbon charge amounts.


However, in the 2014-15 Budget, the Government announced that they proposed to remove the carbon charge.


If legislated, this amendment will be effective from July 1, 2014.


In addition, the Government has proposed to index the excise duty rates for most fuels every six months from August 1, 2014.


The current fuel tax credit rate for heavy vehicles travelling on public roads has remained the same since July 1, 2013 at 12.003 cents per litre.


For more information, click here.

Exporting Memorised Reports in Reckon

How to Export memorised reports from one Reckon Accounts file and import into another Memorised reports are a very useful feature of Reckon Accounts. After modifying a report, there is an option to memorise that report. Memorising a report means that Reckon Accounts will save all the modifications for the next time the report is generated. Like reports can be memorised and saved in Memorised Report Groups. These groups are accessed from the Memorised Report List. Navigate to drop down menu Reports > Memorised Reports > Memorised Report List. The Memorised Report Groups are displayed in bold. The reports in that group are listed under the heading. Highlight the Memorised Report Group to export. Navigate to drop down menu Memorised Report > Export Template. .  Name the Memorised Report Group file. Click Save. .  Open the new Reckon Accounts file. . Navigate to drop down menu Reports > Memorised Reports > Memorised Report List. Navigate to drop down menu Memorised Report > Export Template. . Browse to the Memorised Report Group file. Click Open. Click OK. The new Memorised Report Group has been added to the Memorised Report List.

Should employees be paid for hours worked outside their ordinary roster?

It is a common practice in many industries to require an employee to arrive at work before the start of their roster or stay back after the end of their shift.

Additional time worked by the employees outside of their ordinary shift or roster is considered worked hours and employees must be paid for this time if their employment is covered by:

• A modern award; or
• The National Minimum Wage.

Employees should also be paid for time spent attending meetings or compulsory training events.

When planning staff rosters, extra time may need to be accounted for and consideration needs to be made as to whether these hours will result in employee overtime.

For more information, click here.