The online forms
Online forms make your new employee processes easier and help your employees. To use these forms, new employees need to link their myGov account to ATO online services.
The online forms that employees can use instead of paper forms are:
- Tax file number declaration
- Superannuation (super) standard choice
- Withholding declaration
- Medicare levy variation declaration.
We prefill information for your employees, to reduce the likelihood of:
- your employee giving you incorrect information
- you making an error, such as withholding an incorrect amount of tax.
It's easier for you because you don't send the form to us.
When to use these forms
Before completing the Tax file number declaration online, we encourage your employees to speak with you, as you may have your own electronic form. In that case, new employees should use your form.
Your employees should use the online forms when:
- they start employment with you
- their situation changes and you need to recalculate how much tax to withhold from payments you make to them
- your employee wants you to pay their super guarantee (SG) into a new super fund.
Your employees can view their current and historical tax and super details in ATO online services. Only forms lodged with us since September 2017 are displayed. If their current employment details are not displayed, they don't need to submit a new form unless their situation has changed.
Employee access directly through myGov
Your employees can access and complete pre-filled commencement forms through myGov by going to their linked ATO online services, then selecting Employment from the menu, then New employment.
To complete the forms, your employees need:
- your ABN
- their employment type (for example, full time, part time, casual)
- the details of the super fund they would like their super to be paid into
- the following details if choosing your default super fund
- fund name
- unique superannuation identifier (USI)
- ABN.
Some of this information will be pre-filled, making it quicker to complete and improving the accuracy of the information submitted.
When accessing ATO online services, your employees can:
- view pre-filled information about their tax affairs – for example, residency status and education loans
- see information related to their super, including their existing funds and your default fund
- complete and submit the employee commencement forms to us.
Once the form is complete, employees need to print the employee tax and/or super details summary and give it to you. You then enter the information into your system and keep a copy of the summary for your records. Don't send us a copy, as the information has already been sent electronically to us.
If an employee makes a mistake, they can update their details online and give you a new employee tax and/or super details summary.
Employees can also update their tax and/or super details if their situation changes; for example, a change in their residency or finalising their education loan. For more information on how your employees complete their tax and super detail online, see Access and complete employment forms in ATO online.
If your employee would like to choose a new super fund, or compare existing super accounts, they can access the personalised YourSuper comparison tool on ATO online services through myGov. The YourSuper comparison tool is a simple way to compare MySuper products and helps employees choose a super fund that meets their needs.
Employer software linking to forms in myGov
Software developers can now build services that link your software to the online commencement forms. Check with your software provider to find out if they offer this service.
With this service, you can allow your employees to access the ATO online services form through your own payroll software or onboarding solution. They would:
- only be able to access these forms from the link you give them
- need a myGov account linked to ATO online services.
When accessing ATO online services, your employees can:
- view pre-filled information about their tax affairs – for example, residency status or education loans
- see information related to their superannuation, including their existing funds and your default fund
- complete and submit the employee commencement forms to us.
Once the form is submitted, your payroll software will request the information from us through SBR2-enabled software. The information we give you will include the employee's tax file number, residency status, tax free threshold, Medicare levy details and chosen super fund.
Sample form
This is a sample of the Employee tax and super details form (PDF, 166KB)Opens in a new window.