The TFN Declaration and the Withholding Declaration have been updated for 2015-2016 due to the following changes.
Trade Support Loans
Both declarations have been revised to reflect a new type of debt that some staff may have, known as a Trade Support Loan (TSL). This is a loan made available by the Federal Government to employees who undertake an apprenticeship to assist with living expenses during that period. As in the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), the individual is required to repay the loan when their income exceeds a threshold (currently $54,126) and an employer is required to withhold from the employee’s wages an amount for that purpose where the employee has indicated that they have a TSL.
The TFN Declaration and Withholding Declaration both now ask whether the individual has a HELP or TSL debt. There are also minor changes to the form to delete mention of the dependent tax offset, which no longer applies.
Obtaining the new versions
The new Withholding Declaration can be accessed at: https://www.ato.gov.au/forms/withholding-declaration/.
Those whose payroll software produces the TFN Declaration should confirm that the software has been updated for the new version. For those who use original ATO paper copies, you will need to order them from the ATO publications service. At this stage the ATO only has the old version available; we understand that it is not releasing the new version until stocks of the old version are depleted. We therefore recommend that you check weekly for NAT3092-07.2015 becoming available.
You can see an example of the new TFN Declaration at: https://www.ato.gov.au/Forms/TFN-declaration/.