QuickBooksForum.com.au

Quickbooks is constantly over-quoting tax rates for my staff.  I have the correct tax table, but when I compare with the ATO rates, their amounts are much lower.

Can you please advise me on this?  Thanks.

Hi,

This is not a known issue in QB (you can imagine the complaints if it were) - so it is likely to be something in your set up.

The first thing to look at is the tax table version.

go Employees > Tax Table Information and make sure you see version 1011192

Next I would check is each employees "taxes" information from within their Payroll and Compensation details - what tax code are you using??

eg. Fulltime staff is usually 2-TFT, and Casuals 7-No LL.

Also make sure you don't have "Help Debt (HECS) ticked, or are taking out "additional" tax.

Finally, check you have the correct "pay frequency" setting. ie. If you pay fortnightly, but this setting is weekly, more tax will be taken then is applicable.

Start there and let us know how you get on.


Regards,

Jason
www.quickbooksolutions.com.au

I have the same or a similar problem to the OP (if it turns out to be different then I can repost as a separate topic)

Info on tax tables from QB:
We have always found them to be different by a few dollars from the ATO official calculator, not sure why this is (but never different by enough to worry about)

On with the problem:
In the last two months pays (2011-Jan, 2011-Feb, we pay monthly) we have noticed that the PAYG tax and the SUPER fields do not update automatically as the hours for the month are entered for the employee... the tax and super stay locked/frozen to the value from last month's pay.  To fix this, we highlight the frozen value, press delete, then tab to next field and the correct value comes in.  This was chance discovery and now we have to go back and fix some bad pays and tax remittances to ATO.

This is a major annoyance and has destroyed my faith in QB, faith that was only just starting to return from the YTD calculation problem from a while ago.

Is anyone else having this problem with their package?  We have PRO 2010-11, latest tax table 1011192 installed, no other updates appear to be available.

Have you checked everything listed above??

If so, there is possibly a corruption in one of the payroll items, so you need to rebuild the data file as this will join any broken links.

Also, if any payroll items have been adjusted, the SUPER or PAYG attributes for these items may have been un-checked, so revise all payroll items for the correct PAYG setting, and check the super item to ensure the correct payroll accruing items are checked.

Finally, in the super item, make sure you don't have the Calculate by QTY box checked.


Let me know how you get on. For the record, QB should be EXACTLY the same as the ATO calc tables (monthly tables for you). If it isn't, there is more then likely something wrong in the set-up, or a file corruption.

Regards,

Jason
www.quickbooksolutions.biz

edited post above to reflect that the proper tax table number 1011192 is installed.

rebuilding data file...

look at that, the tax and super numbers update automatically now as they should! 

We are back to 'happy', but still annoyed that as a user we have to be on the lookout for these bizarre problems.  If we had not noticed, we could have been in big poo after another couple of months.  Thanks Jason for taking the time to reply and for the useful tips, that is much appreciated.

Just to be clear, rebuilding the data file fixed the problem

---

Rechecking my comment above on PAYG variations between ATO and QB:
download "Tax Withheld Calculator" from ATO V4.11:
[http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/content.asp?doc=/content/16275.htm]
Leave all the defaults (TFN claimed, resident etc) but click the 'monthly' selector:
Monthly gross $5344: ATO=$1824, QB=$1837
Monthly gross $5188: ATO=$1092, QB=$1101

As I said above, it's close but has never been 'exact' when we have run these checks in the past.  Maybe the ATO software is 'wrong'?

Glad to be of assistance

I agree - some errors are very hard to detect, and even harder to fix (or time consuming). Try to run a rebuild every week if you can, and make sure COMPLETE VERIFY is selected when you run a back-up as this "should" pick up most problems (as a back-up should be a daily routine in QB due to it's effect on the *.TLG file and data verify)

ps. I'll run some tests on the data you have provided.


Jason
www.quickbooksolutions.com.au

OK - so I've just run the tests on the Gross figures you have given above.

Your Calculations:
Monthly gross $5344: ATO=$1824, QB=$1837
Monthly gross $5188: ATO=$1092, QB=$1101

My Calculations:
Monthly gross $5344: ATO=$1153, QB=$1153
Monthly gross $5188: ATO=$1101, QB=$1101

So as you can see there is a little more work needed on your part as to why this is happening in your QB setup (and the ATO calcs). For example, even though the gross in scenario #1 is only $156/mth greater than #2, you are taking an extra $732 in tax!!! This tells me straight away that there is an issue.

There must be more to this??!!?? Let me know how you get on.


Regards,

Jason
www.quickbooksolutions.com.au

The frist one was my bad typing, it should have been:

Monthly gross $7344: ATO=$1824, QB=$1837

Tried to attach screen shot of the the ATO calculator results are for the second one (but could not upload for some reason).  It definitely returns $1092, how did you get your ATO number, was it from the program I quoted above?

I just tested the above and got $1,837 TAX for both the ATO and QB. Possibly in the ATO set up you are incorrectly assigning (or not assigning) leave loading tax?? If not LL, then something?? Try and get me a screen shot if you can of the ATO setup - even email offline if you have to.



Regards,

Jason
www.quickbooksolutions.com.au