Tax codes: Primary employment
Primary employment tax codes
Use this table for the correct tax code for your employee.
| If your employee ... | then their primary tax code is ... |
|---|---|
|
M. |
|
M SL. |
|
ME. |
|
ME SL. |
| works more than 20 hours per week in all jobs with an income less than $9,880* | ML. |
*Certain criteria apply - employees should follow the Tax code declaration form (IR330) flowchart, or use our decision tree to work out their tax code.
Completing the Tax code declaration form
Your employee must complete a Tax code declaration (IR330) form when they start working for you, or if their circumstances change.
Other sources of primary income
The following can also be considered primary employment if it is the main or only source of income:
- taxable pension
- benefit*
- student allowance.
*this will always have an M tax code, even if it is a secondary source of income.
Only one primary tax code can be used
An employee can use only one primary tax code at any time. If your employee uses a primary tax code for another job, then they must use secondary code S with you unless one of the following two codes apply:
- SH if their total income is over $48,000
- ST if their total income is over $70,000.
If your employee has a student loan and their total income is over the threshold at which they must begin repaying their loan, SL is added to whichever of the above secondary codes applies (ie the tax code will be S SL, SH SL or ST SL).
Other codes
Other codes that your employee may need to use include:
- WT for schedular (formerly withholding) payments
- CAE for the earnings of casual agricultural employees
- EDW for the earnings of election day workers
- NSW, the tax code for Pacific Island workers employed under the Recognised Seasonal Employers scheme.
- STC a special tax code or student loan special repayment rate. Example of use: when a secondary tax code would result in a tax rate too high for their circumstances or not enough tax will be deducted to cover their tax or student loan obligations.
| Note | |
|---|---|
| If we identify your employee is using the wrong tax code, we'll write to you asking you to change it. We'll tell you which employees are using incorrect tax codes and let you know which code they should be on. | |
Find out more
Deducting student loan repayments
Using the tax code declaration
Secondary employment
Correcting employee tax codes
Date published: 23 Apr 2009
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