Employee completed online form
Your payee now has the option to provide their Tax file number declaration through ATO online services. When your payee submits the form, they will receive an employee detail tax summary which they should print and provide to you.
Don’t ask your payee to send this information via email. Sending personal information via email can expose you and them to fraud as it’s not a secure channel. See more information on:
Don't send us a copy of the printed summary, because the information has already been sent electronically to us. Instead:
- enter the tax details into your system
- keep a copy of the summary for your records.
The information provided to you on the employee tax details summary will help you determine the amount of tax to be withheld from payments, for example, whether you need to withhold additional amounts for a study or training support loan.
For more information on how your payee completes the online employment forms, see Access and complete employment forms in ATO online.
Employee completed paper form
If your employee provides you with a paper form, you need to complete Section B if you are not either:
- reporting through STP-enabled reporting software
- lodging your TFN declaration data online.
If the payee indicated at Question 1 that they have applied for an individual TFN, or enquired about their existing TFN, they have 28 days to give you their TFN.
You must withhold tax for 28 days at the standard rate according to the PAYG withholding tax tables.
After 28 days, if the payee has not given you their TFN, you must then withhold the top rate of tax from future payments, unless we tell you not to.
When you need to lodge the form
Don't send the Tax file number declaration to us if:
- you’re using STP-enabled reporting software, because your STP reporting already includes the information we need
- your payee has provided a printed employee tax and/or super details summary from ATO online services, because the information is sent electronically to us.
However, in either case you must still:
- keep the employee tax details summary or the completed TFN declaration form in your records
- use secure methods when storing and disposing of it.
Do send the declaration to us if your employee provided you with a paper TFN declaration form and you are not using STP-enabled reporting software. You must:
- complete Section B
- lodge the form by posting the original to us at the address listed on the form.
The form must be lodged within 14 days after the form is either:
- signed by the payee
- completed by you (if the form was not provided by the payee).
You must:
- keep a copy of the form in your records
- use secure methods when storing and disposing of it.
Payer obligations
A TFN declaration applies to payments made after the declaration is provided to you. The information provided on this form is used to work out the amount of tax to be withheld from payments based on the PAYG withholding tax tables we publish.
If your payee gives you another declaration, it overrides any previous declarations.
You also need to be aware of the following obligations:
- Check if your employee is entitled to work in Australia
- Check if your payee working under a working holiday visa (subclass 417) or a work and holiday visa (subclass 462)
- If payee has not provided TFN
- Providing payee's TFN to their super fund
- Storing and disposing of TFN declarations.
Check if your employee is entitled to work in Australia
It is a criminal offence to knowingly or recklessly allow someone to work, or to refer someone for work, where that person is from overseas and is either in Australia illegally or is working in breach of their visa conditions.
People or companies convicted of these offences may face fines imprisonment (or both). To avoid penalties, ensure your prospective employee has a valid visa to work in Australia before you employ them. Go to the Department of Home AffairsExternal Link website for more information.
Check if your payee working under a working holiday visa (subclass 417) or a work and holiday visa (subclass 462)
Payers of workers under these 2 types of visas need to register with the ATO. See Employer registration for working holiday makers.
If payee has not provided TFN
If your payee has not given you a completed TFN declaration form, you must notify us within 14 days of the start of the withholding obligation.
If you're not using either STP-enabled reporting software or lodging your TFN declaration data online, you must complete a paper copy of the form. You need to:
- complete as much of the payee section (Section A) of the form as you can. For information on the TFN code to use, see TFN not provided or incorrect.
- print ‘PAYER’ in the payee declaration
- send the form to us
- withhold the top rate of tax from any payment to that payee.
Providing payee's TFN to their super fund
If you make a super contribution for your payee, you need to give your payee's TFN to their super fund on the day of contribution.
If the payee has not yet quoted their TFN, you need to give your payee's TFN to their super fund within 14 days of receiving this form from your payee.
Storing and disposing of TFN declarations
The TFN Rule issued under the Privacy Act 1988 requires a TFN recipient to use secure methods when storing and disposing of TFN information.
You may store either paper copies or electronic files of scanned employee detail tax summaries or paper forms. Scanned forms must be clear and not altered in any way.
If a payee:
- submits a new Tax file number declaration form, you must retain a copy of the earlier form until the end of the following financial year
- has not received payments from you for 12 months, you must still retain a copy of the last completed form until the end of the financial year which follows the year in which you last paid them. For example, if you last paid them on 12 April 2026 you will need to retain their TFN declaration until 30 June 2027.
Penalties
You may incur a penalty if you do not:
- lodge TFN declarations with us if required
- keep a copy of completed TFN declarations for your records
- provide the payee's TFN to their super fund, where the payee quoted their TFN to you.