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PAYG payment summaries

Check what type of payment summary you need to give your payees for the financial year.

Last updated 8 August 2021

You must give each of your payees a payment summary showing how much you paid them for the financial year and how much you withheld from the payments.

You may have to complete various types of payment summaries depending on the types of payments you've made throughout the financial year.

You do not need to provide your employees with payment summaries for information you report and finalise through Single Touch Payroll.

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End of financial year payments to employees

If salary and wages are accrued in the current financial year (prior to 30 June) but paid in the following financial year (on or after 1 July), the full amount of the payment will be taxed at the following financial year's tax rates and included in the following financial year's payment summary.

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Example 1

XYZ Company pays their employees each Thursday. The final payment for the 2014–15 financial year is on 25 June 2015. The amount that is accrued following this date will be paid to the employees on 2 July 2015 and be included in the 2015–16 payment summary. Withholding on the whole amount will be at the rates that apply for the 2015–16 financial year.

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Electronic payments

When payments are made electronically, the payment date is either the date stipulated in the electronic transaction or, if no date is stipulated, the date on which the payment is intended to be made into that bank account.

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Example 2

ABC Company instructs their bank to pay their employees' salary by EFT on 30 June 2008. The company specifies that the payments should be credited to the employees' bank account on 1 July. As the payment is instructed to be made on 1 July, these payments must be included in the 2008–09 payment summary and withholding on the whole amount will be at the rates that apply for that year.

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Types of payment summaries

The type of payment summary you give each of your payees will be determined by the type of payment you made as well as when it was paid.

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Payment summaries for workers

Generally, you must give each of your workers a payment summary by 14 July each year, even if the withheld amount is nil.

Some of the most common payment summaries used for workers are:

The payment summary should show each payee how much you paid them in the financial year, and how much you withheld from the payments.

If you have paid an employment termination payment (ETP) to a worker you must give them a PAYG payment summary – employment termination payment (NAT 70868) within 14 days of making the payment.

You may have to complete various types of payment summaries depending on the types of payments you've made throughout the financial year.

Payment summaries where no ABN was quoted

If you have withheld tax from a payment because another business didn’t quote an ABN to you, you must give them a payment summary showing details of the payment.

You can use our form PAYG payment summary – withholding where ABN not quoted or prepare your own, as long as you include all the necessary details.

You need to provide this payment summary at the time you make the payment or as soon as practicable afterwards.

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Electronic payment summaries

If you lodge your PAYG withholding reports online, you can give your workers their payment summaries electronically. They must be:

  • non-editable
  • able to be printed in high quality so they are easy to read.

You will need to:

  • give your payees the option to receive either an electronic or paper payment summary
  • tell your payees when the payment summaries are available and ensure they know how to access and print them
  • ensure the method you choose to distribute electronic payment summaries is secure enough to protect their tax file numbers and other personal information.

You can provide the following payment summaries electronically:

You can also print the individual payment summaries and provide them to your employees. However, do not send printed copies of your employee's electronic payment summaries to us. Our systems cannot process payment summaries printed in this format.

You can find out more about the requirements for producing self-print and electronic payment summaries, by accessing our software developers site.

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Part-year payment summaries

A worker can ask for a part-year payment summary. It must be in writing and made before 9 June (21 days before the end of the financial year).

You must provide your worker with a copy of their payment summary within 14 days of their request unless the worker has received a reportable fringe benefits tax (which can only be calculated at the end of the fringe benefits tax year).

Part-year payment summaries provide details of withholding payments made from either:

  • 1 July of that financial year to the date of issue of the payment summary
  • The date of issue of any previous part-year payment summary to the date of issue of the current one.

If you have provided a worker with a part-year payment summary, their end of financial year payment summary should only include details for the period from the date of issue of the last part-year payment summary to 30 June.

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Paper payment summaries

You can order paper payment summaries from us using our online publication ordering service for business. These are triplicate forms – you give one copy to each worker, keep a copy for your records and send the ATO original to us as part of your annual reporting.

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QC27082