FKINP NSW employers should review related companies, common controllers, direct and indirect interests, trusts, shared employees and overlapping groups—not just entities with similar names. These are investigation prompts, not automatic conclusions that grouping applies.[1][3]
Grouping treats connected businesses as one unit for payroll-tax purposes and aggregates their wages.[1] Only one NSW group member can claim the annual tax-free threshold; Revenue NSW identifies that member as the designated group employer.[1]
Map ownership and control
Look beyond separate names and ABNs. Waterhouse Tax Lawyers recommends tracing the national structure, including trusts and overseas parents.[3] Use these relationship-to-record checks as evidence-gathering suggestions, not a prescribed Revenue NSW document checklist.
- Related companies: Gather ownership registers and structure charts showing parents, subsidiaries, common holding companies and overseas ultimate holding companies.[3] Revenue NSW identifies related bodies corporate under section 50 of the Corporations Act 2001 as a grouping category.[1]
- Common control and indirect interests: Map ownership chains and identify people who may control multiple businesses.[1][3] Revenue NSW says controlling-interest definitions depend on business type and separately identifies majority interests in corporations.[1]
- Partnerships and trusts: Include partnership agreements, trust deeds and relevant control documents in the working pack. Waterhouse warns that trust control links may not be apparent from names or ABNs.[3]
- Overlapping groups: Compare existing membership lists in a combined relationship map. Revenue NSW identifies “subsuming”, where smaller groups form a larger group.[1]
Keep interstate entities on the map, but assess NSW grouping under NSW rules.[3] Revenue NSW’s common-control guidance (section 72 of the Payroll Tax Act) sets the controlling-interest tests: for a company, more than 50% of the voting power at directors’ meetings or of the voting rights attached to voting shares; for a partnership, more than 50% of the capital or an entitlement to more than 50% of the profits; for a trust, an entitlement to more than 50% of the value of the beneficial interests. Every beneficiary of a discretionary trust is deemed to have a controlling interest. Do not substitute another state’s tests.[2]
Match staffing arrangements to the work performed
Revenue NSW identifies common employees as a grouping category.[1] Review shared staff, secondments and centralised administration, management, payroll or bookkeeping teams employed by one entity but working for others.[3]
For each relevant worker, record the employing entity, the businesses receiving their work, their duties and when the arrangement began or changed.[3][4] Collect employment, service and secondment agreements; Cutcher & Neale recommends clear employee-agreement records where staff work across entities.[3][5]
Where work crosses jurisdictions, add timesheets, rosters and work-location records, including hybrid-work patterns, interstate travel, relocations and effective dates. ADP identifies these as relevant supporting records.[4]
Review structural changes
Revisit the grouping position before an acquisition, restructure, new company, new service entity or employee transfer—change prompts identified by Waterhouse Tax Lawyers.[3] Compare the structure before and after each change, recording effective dates and affected ownership, control and staffing relationships.[3][4]
For example, if a new administration company employs staff who support other entities, investigate shared employment rather than assuming the businesses remain separate. Creating the company alone is not proof of grouping.[3]
Check Revenue NSW’s existing group details
Compare your entity map with the grouping information Revenue NSW holds. Customers and authorised contacts can view and update that information, create a new group, change group members and upload supporting documents through its online service.[1]
To update grouping information, log into Payroll Tax Online, select the ‘change of group details’ tab and follow the prompts.[1] Before making changes, assemble:
- Your entity map and differences from recorded membership.
- Existing payroll-tax registration and group correspondence.
- Any Designated Group Employer and Group Single Lodger records—both are concepts Revenue NSW identifies for payroll-tax groups.[1]
Investigate discrepancies before adding or removing members. Before changing arrangements or filing, confirm Designated Group Employer nomination or change procedures, Group Single Lodger eligibility and member-by-member return obligations with Revenue NSW or a specialist adviser.
Refer exclusion and liability questions
Revenue NSW may grant an exclusion order and provides an application pathway.[1] Confirm the applicable tests and required evidence with Revenue NSW before applying.
For specialist assessment, assemble information about management, employees, premises, finances, customers, suppliers and dealings between businesses. Waterhouse Tax Lawyers identifies these as potential independence factors, not an official NSW evidence checklist.[3]
Refer unresolved trusts, interstate structures, shared employment and exclusion applications to a payroll-tax specialist. Waterhouse’s commentary also raises these questions for NSW-specific advice:[3]
- Could joint-and-several liability expose a member to another member’s unpaid payroll tax?[3]
- Are additional registrations or reporting obligations relevant?[3]
- How could interstate wages affect the available threshold?[3]
- If an entity was incorrectly treated as a stand-alone employer, what historical payroll tax, interest or penalties could arise?[3]
Public-sector and illegal-phoenix structures need separate attention: Revenue NSW identifies additional grouping categories for specified public bodies and certain entities influenced by the same third party.[1]
Complete the pre-filing record
Keep a dated entity map, ownership and control evidence, staffing records, structural-change log and comparison with Revenue NSW’s group details. Record unresolved questions and who will resolve them.
Document the basis for the assessed grouping position and supporting wage totals, consistent with ADP’s recordkeeping guidance.[4] Confirm designated-employer and threshold treatment: the group shares a single threshold, not a separate entitlement for each entity.[1]
References
- Payroll tax grouping | Revenue NSW (nsw.gov.au)
- Common control and payroll tax grouping | Revenue NSW (nsw.gov.au)
- Payroll Tax Grouping in Australia | Rules for Related Businesses (waterhousetaxlawyers.com.au)
- Payroll tax in Australia: a state-by-state guide for employers (adp.com)
- Payroll tax grouping: Tips and traps for business owners. (cutcher.com.au)
