Employing Workers Subject to Horticulturalist and Shears Tax Rates

Payees who work assignments of less than 6 months for the same host employer in the horticultural and shearing industries may be subject to special flat rates of tax (13% for Australian tax residents and 32.5% for non-residents as at the time of writing).

To tax a payee at the horticulturalists and shears tax rates, the payee must meet the following conditions:

• must provide a tax file number (TFN)

• must not have a Study and Training Support Loan (STSL)

• must not be claiming any adjustments, reductions or offsets on their withholding.

In FastTrack360 a Payee record is created for a payee who is subject to horticulturalists and shears tax rates by setting the following in the PAYG Tax Details section of the Payee Entry screen:

• the Tax Scale field must be set to the Variation - Approved Withholding Variation Percentage option

• a TFN must be keyed in the TFN Number field or the TFN Application In Process option must be selected in the No TFN Reason field

• if the payee meets the criteria for being exempt from withholding, the Horticulturalists/Shears Tax field must be ticked

• the applicable withholding percentage must be keyed in the Withholding Variation % field.

For more information about creating payees, see How to Create a Payee.