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  • Tax table for daily and casual workers

    Tax table for payments made to employees on a daily or casual basis.

    On this page

    For payments made on or after 13 October 2020

    Use the Withholding lookup tool to quickly work out the amount to withhold (XLSX 33KB)This link will download a file.

    Using this table

    You should use this table if you make any of the following payments to payees, who have claimed the tax-free threshold, on a daily or casual basis:

    • salary, wages, allowances and leave loading paid to employees
    • paid parental leave
    • directors' fees
    • salary and allowances paid to office holders (including members of parliament, statutory office holders, defence force members and police officers)
    • payments to labour-hire workers
    • payments to religious practitioners.

    You also use this table where a payee is engaged on a daily or casual basis, but not paid daily.

    Example

    An employee works on a casual basis as a bartender for two separate entities during the week and is paid on an hourly basis. The employee has claimed the tax-free threshold from both employers. Both employers should use this tax table to calculate withholding from payments made for the hours worked.

    End of example

    For all other cases, use the relevant PAYG withholding weekly tax table or fortnightly tax table.

    If you employ individuals under a working holiday makers visa you must use the Tax table for working holiday makers for all payments made to them, including lump sum payments.

    The payee must have claimed the tax-free threshold to use this table.

    When using this table, do not withhold an amount for:

    • Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debts
    • VET Student Loan (VSL) debts
    • Financial Supplement (FS) debts
    • Student Start-up Loan (SSL) debts, or
    • Trade Support Loan (TSL) debts.

    When using this table, do not adjust the withholding amount for a payee who is claiming a Medicare levy exemption or reduction. Medicare levy variations do not apply to this table.

    See also:

    Working out the withholding amount

    To work out the amount you need to withhold using the tax table, you must:

    1. Ignore any cents, input payee’s daily earnings into the Withholding lookup tool (XLSX 33KB)This link will download a file and refer to the corresponding amount to be withheld in column 2.
    2. If the payee has claimed any tax offsets, see Claiming tax offsets to work out the daily value of the amount claimed. Subtract the daily value of the tax offsets from the amount found in step 1.

    Example

    An employee earns $193.62 and claims tax offsets of $500. Ignore cents, input $193 into the Withholding lookup tool (XLSX 33KB)This link will download a file and find the corresponding amount to be withheld in column 2 of $30.00. Reduce this amount by the daily value of the tax offsets of $2.00 ($500 × 0.0038 rounded to the nearest dollar).

    The final withholding amount is $28.00 ($30.00 − $2.00).

    End of example

    Using a formula

    The withholding amounts shown in this table can be expressed in a mathematical form.

    If you have developed your own payroll software package, you can use the formulas and the coefficients outlined in Statement of formulas for calculating amounts to be withheld.

    Where the payee is entitled to the seniors and pensioners tax offset, replace with the appropriate coefficients from Tax table for seniors and pensioners.

    Tax file number (TFN) declarations

    The answers your payees provide on their Tax file number declaration determine the amount you need to withhold from their payments. A Tax file number declaration applies to any payments made after you receive the declaration. If you receive an updated declaration from a payee, it will override the previous one.

    If a payee does not give you a valid Tax file number declaration within 14 days of starting a payer-payee relationship, you must complete a Tax file number declaration with all available details of the payee and send it to us.

    When a TFN has not been provided

    You must withhold 47% from any payment you make to a resident payee and 45% from a foreign resident payee (ignoring any cents), if all of the following apply:

    • they have not quoted their TFN
    • they have not claimed an exemption from quoting their TFN
    • they have not advised you that they have applied for a TFN or have made an enquiry with us.

    If a payee states at question 1 of the Tax file number declaration they have lodged a Tax file number – application or enquiry for individuals with us, they have 28 days to provide you with their TFN.

    If a payee has not given you their TFN within 28 days, you must withhold 47% from any payment you make to a resident payee and 45% from a foreign resident payee (ignoring any cents) unless we tell you not to.

    Do not allow for any tax offsets or Medicare levy adjustment.

    Claiming tax offsets

    If your payee chooses to claim their entitlement to a tax offset through reduced withholding, they must provide you with a Withholding declaration.

    If your payee claims a tax offset, reduce the amount to be withheld from their earnings by the daily value of the tax offset. The daily value is 0.38% of the amount claimed, rounded to the nearest dollar.

    Do not allow for any tax offsets if any of the following apply:

    Withholding declarations

    A payee may use a Withholding declaration to advise you of a tax offset they choose to claim through reduced withholding from you. For more information, see Claiming tax offsets.

    Payees can also use a Withholding declaration to advise you of any changes to their situation that may affect the amount you need to withhold from their payments.

    Changes that may affect the amount you need to withhold include:

    • becoming or ceasing to be an Australian resident for tax purposes
    • claiming or discontinuing a claim for the tax-free threshold
    • advising of a HELP, VSL, FS, SSL or TSL debt, or changes to them.

    When your payee provides you with a Withholding declaration it will take effect from the next payment you make. If you receive an updated declaration from a payee, it will replace the previous one.

    A payee must have provided you with a valid Tax file number declaration before your payee can provide you with a Withholding declaration.

    What if your payee is a foreign resident?

    If your payee has answered no to the question ‘Are you an Australian resident for tax purposes?’ on their Tax file number declaration, you will need to use the foreign resident tax rates.

    There are two ways you can withhold from a foreign resident’s earnings:

    • If they have not given you a valid TFN, you need to withhold 45% for each $1 of earnings (ignoring any cents).
    • If they have given you a valid TFN, you need to withhold the amount calculated in the foreign resident tax rates below, rounding any cents to the nearest dollar.

    Foreign resident tax rates

    Weekly tax rates

    Weekly earnings
    $

    Weekly rate

    0 to 2,306

    32.5 cents for each dollar of earnings

    2,307 to 3,460

    $749 plus 37 cents for each $1 of
    earnings over $2,306

    3,461 and over

    $1,176 plus 45 cents for each $1 of
    earnings over $3,460

    Foreign residents cannot claim tax offsets to reduce withholding. If your foreign resident employee has claimed a tax offset on the Withholding declaration, don’t make any adjustments to the amount you withhold.

    PAYG withholding publications

    You can access all PAYG withholding tax tables and other PAYG withholding publications quickly and easily from our website. For more information, refer to:

    If you need more information about the correct amount of tax to withhold, phone us on:

    • 13 28 61 if you are an individual
    • 13 28 66 if you are an employer or payer.
    Last modified: 13 Oct 2020QC 63817