Hi,
This is my first time doing a tax return and I just received my PAYG summary from my employer stating it's for my work until 30th of June, however I have actually earnt maybe 3-4k more than that from my recent pay. Is my PAYG summary relevant at all?
Thanks
Thanks, I wasn't sure if the discrepency was normal or whether they should be the same. I will check with the employer.
They should be exactly the same. It's a summary of your total pay for the financial year. Your last pay slip of the financial year should show the same figures.
Thanks for clarifying
The PAYG summary is also provided to the ATO, so that is what you use for your tax return.
If it doesn't make sense compared to what your payslip says or what you think you earnt then you should query the pay office and if they've made a mistake they will issue a new Payment Summary
Wrong, the ATO receives pay information in other ways and cross checks. Source: was given a false summary like OP, completed tax return with it, and months later the ATO found out it was wrong and audited my whole return too.
The PAYG summary is provided by the employer. It is submitted to the ATO by the employer.
Yes, why did you say that?
This can also happen if the employer's business details changed during the year and in that case there could be another PAYG summary for the balance under the other business details. Anyway, you can also look at how the income is being prefilled in the portal as that should bring in all PAYG summaries
Your PAYG is uploaded automatically to the ATO. Just use that to complete your tax return.
No, the OP wants to pay more tax
They must gunning for the Australian of the year award.
This is how you get fined by the ATO.
Mine is always like that too, income statement says lower than last payslip. I just use whatever the income statement says because its always more favourable for me than what the payslip cumulative totals are.
Lots of reasons if you're adding up all your pay, rather than looking at the financial year total in your final payslip.
examples
Your last pay for the financial year may include pay for dates that are after June 30th. ie some companies pay you once a month and this includes 2 weeks in advance.
Or they paid you in July for some June and some July dates (some of those dates in that pay weren't part of the 2019/20 Financial Year).
Or the pay slip you got way back in July 2019 included dates in June 2019 which don't count for payment summary.
Yeah I had a look, I'm looking at my last payslip in June which was 24th and was paid on the 26th, it's still more than what I was just sent
do you get any tax free allowances? like working away from home etc
Salary packaging maybe? But should this affect 'gross earnings'
ATO does personal tax returns on a cash basis - what has been paid, rather than what has been earned.
My pay landed in my account on 1/7 for 1.5 weeks in arrears and half a week in advance, but none of that payslip counted in my 2019-20 as it wasn't paid until 2020-21.
Generally it will self correct as it's just a timing issue (e.g. I'll have 27 fortnights included in 2020-21 instead of 26 due to this).
Common mistake is counting your July 2019 pay as July 2019.
Your june 2019 pay is actually paid into july 2019 .
Then your june 2020 is paid in july 2020.
This is relevant if you're paid monthly, less of an effect if you are paid fortnightly.
If you use MyGov it shouldn't matter as your info will be pre-filled.
^ but please also check that the pre-filled info is correct. Last FY I got a warning for trusting their pre-filled info 100%. I felt like ATO tested/scammed me.
i just got a letter from RAMS indicating that their prefilled amount was wrong for the last financial year. outrageous!
fortunately i didnt use the prefilled amount.
IKR! Mine was from ME Bank
It does matter, because if the prefill and/or summary are wrong (which they are in this case), you are liable for correcting them.
It's prefilled using information provided by third parties, you should always make sure it's correct before submitting.
Had the same thing happen, a few days later a second one appeared. So ended up with two payment summaries, not sure why (never happened before). Had the same employer for the whole financial year and didn’t change positions. Maybe just wait and see if a second one gets added.
I do payroll for a small business and we had to do this (generate a second summary) when we changed payroll products in the middle of the financial year. The ATO gives a couple of options, but the new provider indicated the “safest” thing to do was to close up the stp records in the old system (marking them as tax ready) and starting fresh in the new system. Alternatively we could do a records update in the old system zero-ing all of the reports in that FY, and then import and re-report in the new system.
Source: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Single-Touch-Payroll/In-deta…
Does the PAYG summary in MyGov say tax ready and is in green? If it is in orange and says not tax ready then it isn’t complete. You will need to wait until it is stated as tax ready. They have until the end of July to do this.
"Tax ready" just means that the employer has said it's ready, it doesn't mean that the statement is correct. You need to check what your employer has submitted is correct before accepting it by submitting the tax return.
Yep, I get that but a lot of people will see a PAYG summary in their MyGov account and just expect it to be ready to be used. I know when I looked at my wife’s the other day it was a bit short compared to what she had actually earned. A few days later it showed tax ready and was the correct amount.
It is by pay date. Anything paid in July 2020 for dates worked in June 2020 is not included. However, it includes pay for any work completed in June 2019 if that was paid in Jul 2019.
Yeah the last June payslip was the 24th and the gross on that is more than what's on my PAYG summary
Check. If your employer is dodgy and doctoring your payslip they may be declaring less to the ato and pocketing the difference. Which would probably mean your Super was less as well. Check your super fund has what it is supposed to have. Hell I could make up a phoney pay slip and give it to you without even putting any money in your bank let alone pay tax, WorkCover or super. Wage theft is a multi billion dollar crime. Just sayin’.
use the PAYG summary in general, if there is any discrepancy, check with your employer, not ozbargain.