Group certificates and tax
Interesting question this week from Brett: "Last year my employer took forever to give us our group certificates and I am worried the same thing might happen this year." It got me thinking. What would happen if your employer never gave you a group certificate? How could you still do your tax?
I checked with the Australian Tax Office and first up, this document is not called a group certificate any more but a "payment summary". Next, an employer is legally obliged to provide you with an accurate payment summary by July 14 every year. It must include your name, address, the period over which the payments were made, gross salary, allowances paid, fringe benefit tax, and so on.
However, if your employer fails to do so, for whatever reason, and you cannot get a payment summary from your employer, you can still file a tax return. Generally speaking, you do your tax return reconstructing payments and tax using your pay slips. You also provide a statutory declaration verifying the accuracy of the document.
The ATO is really helpful so you can always ask any further questions directly. Also, the ATO have a statutory declaration form you can download from their website. Just go to www.ato.gov.au and use the navigation list on the left hand side of the home page. Click on "Forms & services" then "Search" then type in "statutory declaration" and download the form. Also, just a little reminder to people to keep your employer up-to-date regarding your current home address. Often people fail to do this and then they leave a company and information regarding payment summaries or even superannuation ends up going to the wrong place.
I checked with the Australian Tax Office and first up, this document is not called a group certificate any more but a "payment summary". Next, an employer is legally obliged to provide you with an accurate payment summary by July 14 every year. It must include your name, address, the period over which the payments were made, gross salary, allowances paid, fringe benefit tax, and so on.
However, if your employer fails to do so, for whatever reason, and you cannot get a payment summary from your employer, you can still file a tax return. Generally speaking, you do your tax return reconstructing payments and tax using your pay slips. You also provide a statutory declaration verifying the accuracy of the document.
The ATO is really helpful so you can always ask any further questions directly. Also, the ATO have a statutory declaration form you can download from their website. Just go to www.ato.gov.au and use the navigation list on the left hand side of the home page. Click on "Forms & services" then "Search" then type in "statutory declaration" and download the form. Also, just a little reminder to people to keep your employer up-to-date regarding your current home address. Often people fail to do this and then they leave a company and information regarding payment summaries or even superannuation ends up going to the wrong place.
