Make a payslip that meets the regulations

What regulation 3.46 requires

There is no prescribed form for an Australian payslip. Section 536(2)(a) of the Fair Work Act allows the regulations to prescribe one and they do not, so compliance is about the information being present rather than the layout. Regulation 3.46 sets out that information:

• the employer’s name, and the employer’s ABN
• the employee’s name
• the period the payslip relates to, and the date the payment was made
• the gross amount and the net amount
• any bonus, loading, allowance, penalty rate, incentive-based payment or other separately identifiable entitlement
• for each deduction, the amount and the name of the fund or account it was paid into
• if paid hourly: the ordinary rate, the number of hours worked at that rate, and the amount paid at it
• if paid an annual salary: the annual rate as at the latest date the payment relates to
• for superannuation: the amount of each contribution made for the period, or the amount intended, with the name of the fund

Two of these are the ones that go missing. The fund or account against each deduction is routinely omitted, and the date the payment was made gets confused with the end of the pay period — they are separate requirements and often separate dates.

The leave that must never appear

This one is not a formatting preference. Regulation 3.47 says a payslip must not state that an amount is a payment for paid family and domestic violence leave, must not state that a period of leave was taken as that leave, and must not show the balance of the entitlement. Regulation 3.48 then says how the money must be shown instead: as an amount paid for ordinary hours, or as another kind of payment such as an allowance, a bonus or overtime.

The reason is safety. A payslip is a document other people can see, and an employee taking this leave may have very good reasons for it not to be identifiable. A generator that offers a “family and domestic violence leave” line is walking an employer into a breach of the regulations, so this one does not offer the line, and it says something if you try to describe one.

Regulation 3.48(3) allows a different treatment where the employee has asked for it — the choice belongs to them, not to the payroll system.

Within one working day

Section 536(1) requires a payslip within one working day of paying the employee. Not at the end of the month, and not on request. It applies whether or not the employee is on leave, it can be given electronically, and it is a civil remedy provision — meaning it is enforceable, with penalties, rather than being a matter of good practice.

Why the tax is a field, not a calculation

PAYG withholding depends on the pay cycle, the employee’s tax file number declaration, their residency status and whether they have a study or training loan. It comes from the ATO’s withholding tables. A generator that guessed at it would hand you a document that looks official and is wrong, and the employee would carry the consequence at tax time. So it is a deduction you enter, presented the way regulation 3.46(2) requires — with the amount and the account it went to.

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