State Payroll Tax Reporting

In Australia, employers are responsible for reporting and paying their payroll taxes to State Revenue Offices (SRO) every month for the prior month and annually for the concluding financial year. Payroll administrators can run the State Payroll Tax Report in Payroll > Overview monthly to get essential data for reporting.

Before running the report, it is important to ensure that the Earnings and Deductions codes are configured properly for the Australia State Payroll Tax report. The configuration drives which codes are reported as taxable earnings or exempt earnings and in which state or territory. Updating the configuration immediately impacts the report from the next run. Go to Payroll Setup > Earnings and Deductions for Earnings in the Options sub-tab, and Payroll Setup > Earnings and Deductions for Deductions in the Options sub-tab for details. To review the configurations, it is recommended to use the AUS Earning Deduction STP Pay Event report in Reporting and Analytics > Reporting > Reports.

Equally important is to ensure that the employee’s genuine work location (State / Territory) is reflected using their Primary Work Assignment location. If, for example, the employee is working virtually from home rather than from their Primary Work Assignment location, use the Work Location Override drop-down list in the Work > Work Assignments screen in People.

The State Payroll Tax report in PDF format includes gross taxable amount and gross exempt amount at the Category level, which is useful for entering into the SRO’s portals. The report in XLSX format provides details at the payment code.

Note: Currently, the product always applies the non-regional tax rates in the Calculation section of the PDF report. The capability of qualifying an employer as a regional employer isn’t yet available.

Configure State Payroll Tax

To configure state payroll tax:

1. Go to Payroll Setup > Earnings and Deductions.
2. Click the Deductions tab or the Earnings tab and select the deduction or earning to map to its respective category.
3. Click the Options tab.
4. In the State Payroll Tax Report Configuration section, map the code to categories so you can report the data per category to the State Revenue Office.
5. In the Taxable/Exempt drop-down list, select one of the following:
   • Exempt from all States / Territories. Then select the exempt option in the Exempt Category drop-down list.
   • Taxable in all States / Territories. Then select a taxable option in the Taxable Category drop-down list.
   • Taxable from all States / Territories. Then do the following:
     1. Specify where the code is taxable in the Taxable Category.
     2. Specify where the code is exempt in the Exempt Category.
     3. Select the state in the Taxable In drop-down lists.
6. If applicable, select the employee’s genuine work location (State / Territory) to override their primary work assignment location in the Work Location Override drop-down list in the Work > Work Assignments screen in People.
7. Each month, in Payroll > Overview, click Report and run the State Payroll Tax report.
8. To review the report configuration, see the AUS Earning Deduction STP Pay Event report in Reporting and Analytics > Reporting > Reports.