Withholding declarations
An employee may use a Withholding declaration to advise you of a tax offset they choose to claim through reduced withholding from you.
Employees 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
- entitlement to a seniors and pensioners tax offset.
When your employee provides you with a Withholding declaration it will take effect from the next payment you make. If you receive an updated declaration from an employee, it will replace the previous one.
An employee must have provided you with a valid Tax file number declaration before they can provide you with a Withholding declaration.
When your employee has a study and training support loan debt
If your employee has a HELP, VSL, FS, SSL or TSL debt, you may need to withhold additional amounts from their payments. Your employee will need to notify you of this on their Tax file number declaration or Withholding declaration.
Next step:
To calculate additional withholding amounts for:
- HELP, VSL, FS, SSL or TSL debts, refer to either
- Statement of formulas, refer to
Employees who are entitled to a reduction of Medicare levy or do not have to pay the Medicare levy because of low family income, will not have to make a compulsory HELP, VSL, FS, SSL or TSL repayment for that year. The exemption from making a compulsory study and training support loans repayment may be claimed on the Medicare levy variation declaration.
Last modified: 13 Oct 2020QC 63798