Payment tasks setup

Payment tasks in TaxLab can be used to review the provisional tax and terminal tax payments required for entities. Users need to review/update the settings in TaxLab that are used to help determine the provisional tax liability and complete tax payment information before using the payment tasks in TaxLab. Learn more about the set up required below.

There are 3 main areas that need to be set up to use the Payment Tasks module, which are outlined below.

Payment task settings

For an entity, the system uses the following to determine the number and due date of payment tasks:

• Balance date and if the tax year is a standard 12 month period or a transitional year
• EOT (Extension of time) status
• GST filing frequency

The payment task due dates/deadlines are set based on the balance date of the taxpayer. If a taxpayer has a transitional year, the number of provisional tax payment tasks will be adjusted based on the number of months in the transitional period.

TaxLab defaults the EOT status to ‘Y – With EOT’ and the GST filing frequency to ‘Two monthly’.

Updating payment task settings for an Entity

1. On the Home screen, click the entity name
2. Click the Tax Years tab
3. Click the relevant tax year
4. Update the EOT status or GST filing frequency by clicking the dropdown

If the EOT status or GST filing frequency is updated in a tax year, the setting rolls forward to future tax years for that entity.

Some settings can also be updated in bulk for many entities from the Workflow > Payments screen.

Tax payments

TaxLab uses the Tax Payments information for the entity to work out the provisional tax and terminal tax liabilities as well as the balance outstanding at each payment date, by looking at the transaction types and dates. Please note that transactions with dates on or before the payment due date will impact the tax liability. 

Data can be manually entered into TaxLab. However, the easiest way for tax agents to update the Tax Payments information is via automated data feeds (IR and Tax pool data feeds). Once the IRD connection or Tax pool connection (Tax Traders and/or Tax Management New Zealand) is set up, TaxLab is updated with the latest transactions.

The next step is to tag the Tax Payment transactions if they can be applied as tax paid. Transactions that come through the IR feed will be automatically tagged as Tax Paid.

Payment task templates

Payment notices can be sent to clients once information on the payment task has been reviewed. TaxLab versions of these payment notices are available for use. However, these payment notices are based on templates which can be fully configured with the firm’s logo and custom wording. Please contact TaxLab Support for more information or to start setting up your templates.

Payment notice templates are grouped into:

• Provisional tax templates.
• Last provisional tax templates.
• Terminal tax templates.

For each of these template groups, the following variations are available:

• Tax Traders – for a single entity that wants to use tax pooling services provided by Tax Traders to pay or finance provisional tax.
• Inland Revenue (short form) – for a single entity showing the amount due.
• Inland Revenue detailed – for a single entity showing the detailed calculation to arrive at the provisional tax liability.
• Inland Revenue Group (short form and detailed) – for a group of entities.

Templates will need to be maintained for each of the variations.