New Working Holiday Makers Legislation

Published: August 30, 2017

As of 1 January 2017, new legislation came into effect in relation to taxing of payments made to temporary Working Holiday Makers (WHM) who were in Australia under a 417 (Working Holiday) or 462 (Work and Holiday) visa.

Under the legislation, employers who employ such workers were required to register with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and, once registered, were required to withhold tax from payments to such workers at specific tax rates.

From October 1, 2017, the ATO will be making a new Tax File Number Declaration form available.  At this time, FastTrack will make available a new Payment Summary format, Payee record changes, updated Tax Scales 3 and 4b, new TFN Declaration Report, and a new Payment Summary Report (PSAR/EMPDUPE file) to support the WHM requirements.

How does this impact you

If your business is registered (or will be registered in this financial year) with the ATO to employ Working Holiday Makers your FastTrack system will require the WHM update.

If you are not registered (or will not be registered) to manage WHM, this release will not impact you or your business. This release is only required for agencies that manage WHM.

Updates – watch this space!

August 17, 2017

Your FTA should have received a Pre-Release Product Update email that included the above information and a request to notify FastTrack if your business requires the update. We will continue to send communications to your FTA over the next few months to keep your business updated about this change, what work will need to be completed prior to this update, and to ultimately ensure your WHM workers are taxed and reported correctly from October 1, 2017.

If your FTA has not received any communications regarding WHM, please contact your Account Manager.

FastTrack Customers

To support and help you with the legislative changes, we’ll be running a free webinar, hosted by Christine Morris-Jones, FastTrack Compliance and Requirements Team Lead, on how to manage WHM. The webinar will be held on Thursday, September 21 from 12pm-1pm AEST. The presentation will run for 30 minutes, followed by a Q&A session.

Additional Information

More information on WHM and employer registration can be found via the links below.
•    General information can be accessed here.
•    Employer registration information can be found here.