Australia has one of the most sophisticated payroll compliance environments in the Asia-Pacific region. Employers must navigate PAYG withholding, mandatory superannuation contributions, Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting to the Australian Tax Office (ATO), and Fair Work Act obligations around minimum wages, leave entitlements, and awards. WorkWisely's Australia payroll module is designed to manage all of these requirements automatically and accurately.
Australian payroll obligations arise from the Income Tax Assessment Act (PAYG withholding), the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992, the Fair Work Act 2009, and relevant Modern Awards or Enterprise Agreements. The ATO is the primary regulatory body for payroll tax compliance, while the Fair Work Commission governs minimum employment standards and award rates.
PAYG (Pay As You Go) withholding requires employers to deduct income tax from employee salary and wages and remit it to the Australian Tax Office (ATO). The amount withheld is based on the employee's Tax File Number (TFN) declaration, residency status, and applicable tax scale.
WorkWisely applies the correct PAYG tax scale based on each employee's TFN declaration, applies ATO tax tables (updated annually), and accounts for the Low Income Tax Offset (LITO), Low and Middle Income Tax Offset (LMITO where applicable), and Medicare Levy. The system also handles HELP/HECS debt repayments (Study and Training Support Loans) automatically.
Superannuation is Australia's compulsory retirement savings system. Employers must pay a minimum percentage of each eligible employee's ordinary time earnings (OTE) into an approved superannuation fund. The Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rate has been increasing incrementally.
WorkWisely calculates superannuation on eligible OTE for every pay period, tracks each employee's nominated super fund and member account number (via SuperStream), and generates the SuperStream-compliant contribution file for lodgement through SMSF clearing houses or directly to large APRA-regulated funds. The system auto-updates the SG rate each financial year as mandated by the ATO.
Single Touch Payroll is Australia's mandatory real-time payroll reporting system. Under STP Phase 2 (mandatory since 1 January 2022 for most employers), employers must report detailed payroll event data to the ATO every time they pay employees — including salary, tax withheld, and superannuation.
WorkWisely is STP Phase 2 compliant and transmits payroll events directly to the ATO in real time after each payroll run. The system disaggregates all gross pay components, correctly classifies income types, manages reportable fringe benefits amounts (RFBA), and submits the year-end STP Finalisation declaration — replacing the need to issue Payment Summaries (Group Certificates).
The Fair Work Act 2009 sets the National Employment Standards (NES), which provide 11 minimum entitlements for all national system employees. WorkWisely helps employers stay compliant with all NES entitlements as well as applicable Modern Award and Enterprise Agreement conditions.
WorkWisely maintains a complete Modern Award library and applies the correct pay rates, penalty rates, overtime loadings, and allowances based on each employee's Award classification and employment type (full-time, part-time, casual). The system also supports Enterprise Agreement (EA) rate tables for organisations with approved EAs.
Q: How does WorkWisely handle the super guarantee for employees with multiple employers?
A: WorkWisely manages super contributions for each employer independently. The concessional contributions cap is an employee-level ATO obligation. WorkWisely alerts payroll managers if an employee's SG contributions across the organisation approach the quarterly maximum contribution base, helping avoid SGC liability.
Q: Can WorkWisely generate Payment Summaries?
A: Since the full rollout of STP, Payment Summaries (Group Certificates) have been replaced by ATO-published Income Statements. WorkWisely submits all required payroll data to the ATO via STP, enabling employees to access their Income Statement directly via myGov. The system still generates an internal payroll summary for employee reference.
Q: How does WorkWisely handle casual employees and their higher pay rates?
A: WorkWisely supports casual employment types with a configurable casual loading (typically 25% above the base Award rate). Casual employees do not accrue annual or personal/carer's leave, and this is correctly reflected in the payroll calculation and payslip.
Q: Does WorkWisely support payroll for working holiday makers (417/462 visa)?
A: Yes. WorkWisely applies STP Income Type WHM and applies the correct PAYG tax scale (Scale 6) for Working Holiday Makers — 15% on the first AUD 45,000 earned in Australia, then regular rates above that threshold.