As in all my articles, my mantra is to “keep it simple” in payroll, as that is what works in payroll. I have written before on issues with how salary has been provided and applied to employees in payroll. Still, it’s one of the annoying questions (other than the Holidays Act) I regularly get where […]
Category: Frequently Asked Questions
Everyday payroll questions, how many can you answer?
Can an employer decide not to provide the opportunity to cash up Annual Leave to employees? If an employee has annual, sick and alternative leave on Termination, which one(s) must be paid out? Do you have to pay an employee if they are on Jury Service? What period of gross earnings is the ‘extra pay’ […]
Entitled, Accrued and Advanced leave – what is the difference?
We get a lot of questions around the labels used in payroll to describe Annual Leave so the following will hopefully help. Entitled, Accrued, and Advanced are used to define the different elements of Annual Leave. To understand them you first must remember that an employee’s Annual Leave year runs for a 12 month period […]
TAX BILLS AND REFUNDS
At the end of the tax year we are frequently asked why an employee has a tax bill ( never a refund !!) to pay. Naturally they find this very frustrating and would rather pay more tax each pay period than be landed with a tax bill. Under New Zealand’s current tax system we operate on […]
Handling PAYE payments
We have been fielding a large number of calls lately and one common question seems to be how we handle PAYE payments as a number of bureaus are taking the Gross pay from their clients, hanging onto the money, and then paying the IRD when due. Our preference is that you, the client, handles the […]
In Lieu of Notice Payments
In Lieu of Notice payments can be paid to an employee if the employer requests the employee to leave immediately once notice has been given. The number of weeks to be paid is specified in the employment contract which should have been signed by both parties. Conversely, the employer may make deductions from the employees […]
Payroll Backup Planning
Possibly due to the spread of swine flu but we have been fielding quite a number of enquiries from companies asking if we provide any kind of a payroll backup service. Well the reality of the situation is its very hard to walk in and pick up someones payroll without any prior knowledge. Even when […]
Handling Direct Credits
We often get asked if we can handle the Direct Credit arragements for our clients and the simple answer is yes. We use a system provided by the ASB Bank who provide a fantastic service. You don’t need to be an ASB Bank customer in order to use their service. How it works is that […]
Calculating termination pay
We get a lot of phone calls as to why the amount showing on the Leave Reports for Annual Leave differs to the amount actually paid to an employee when they terminate. The answer is very simple, accrued leave is valued on the basis of the higher of Normal Pay or the Average Pay over […]
Why do you need the date of birth for employees under 18 and over 65?
Current Kiwisaver legislation means that if someone is younger than 18 or older than 65 and wish to make Kiwisaver contributions then these do not form part of Employer Tax Credit available to the employer. Also, if aged between 16 and 18 the employee may be on the New Entrants pay rate so we need […]