Payroll Tax Guide For Northern Territory Employers and Businesses

Payments to Contractors may also be Taxable Wages

In many cases, payments you make to contractors, consultants, advisors and similar classifications may be taxable wages. This includes situations where:

the contractor provides your business with services required as a normal part of your business’s operation for the majority of the year (for example, carpentry services in a home building business);

the contractor has no employees or subcontractors of its own;

the contractor is paid via a tax invoice;

the contractor invoices you for more than 90 days’ work in the financial year;

in those calendar months that the contractor works for you, he or she averages more than 10 days’ work (a day is any part of a day, whether one hour or 10 hours); and

the labour component of the contractor’s services exceeds 50 per cent of the value of the contract.

It does not matter whether the contractor is a sole trader, partnership, trust or family company.

It does not matter whether the contractor provides his or her own tools and work vehicle.

It does not matter whether the contractor works under a time-based rate, piece rate or under a fixed-price contract.

It does not matter whether the contractor has signed an agreement with your business in which he or she states that no employment relationship exists and that denies any rights associated with being an employee (such as superannuation and paid leave).

For more detailed information on payments to contractors see Contractors, Subcontractors, Consultants and Payroll Tax.

Employment Agents (Labour Hire Businesses)

The correct payroll tax treatment of labour hire arrangements is as follows:

If your business ‘hires inwards’ from a labour hire firm, your contract will generally provide for the labour hire firm to pay that person’s wages and any on-costs (including payroll tax).

If your business ‘hires outwards’, that is, one of your employees is hired from you by another business, you would generally meet the wage and on-costs of that employee (including payroll tax) so that person’s wages would be included in your payroll tax returns.

A simple test that can be applied to labour hire arrangements is the business that issues the PAYG Payment Summary to the worker should be including those wages in its payroll tax returns.

Note: An exemption applies to wages paid by employment agent to an employee in relation to services provided to a client if those wages would have been exempt if the client had directly employed the person (for example, a nurse provided to a public hospital through a labour hire arrangement). In this case, the client would need to make a declaration to that effect, to be retained by the employment agency in case of future investigation.

For further information on labour hire (employment agents) please refer to the following links: PTA026 Employment Agency Contracts – Declaration by Exempt Clients F-PRT-006 Employment Agency Contracts – Declaration by Client PTA028 Employment Agency Contracts On-Hired to Government PTA029 Recruitment Agencies, Placement Agencies, Job Placement Agencies

Exempt Wages

You may be entitled to reduce the value of taxable wages by deducting payments that are exempt from payroll tax. The main exempt wages are:

workers’ compensation payments (but not the ‘make-up pay’ component);

payments for parental leave that are fully met by the employer;

payments for defence force leave;

genuine redundancy payments, which are exempt from income tax; and

wages paid to employees who have worked overseas continuously for your business for more than six months.

Note: Any other type of paid leave taken to extend parental leave (such as long service leave or annual/recreational leave) is not exempt; only the employer-funded parental leave component is exempt.

For further information on exempt wages please refer to PTA012 Exemption for Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave Pay.

Notes: Payments made under the Commonwealth Paid Parental Scheme are not taxable wages as they are not paid by the employer.

Employees from Overseas

Payments and benefits related to workers recruited from outside of Australia (such as 457 Visa Holders) are subject to payroll tax in the same way as workers recruited within Australia.

Payroll Tax on Unpaid Wages and Benefits

PRTA provides that payroll tax is payable on wages and benefits paid or payable.

This means that if, on investigation, it is found that the employer has provided fringe benefits, but not paid fringe benefits tax to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), TRO will assess payroll tax on the value of fringe benefits that should have been declared to the ATO.

The same principle would apply if, for example, an employer has not made superannuation contributions that it was required to make on behalf of employees or contractors, in which case TRO would estimate the value of unpaid superannuation and calculate payroll tax due on that amount.

Further information on other types of wages commence below. There is also a comprehensive alphabetical checklist of all types of taxable wages and benefits commencing below.