Payment tasks

There are two ways to manage payment tasks – either on a per entity level or based on payment due dates. Learn how to open payment tasks and how to use the payment task screen to review/update the provisional tax liability at each instalment.

TABLE OF CONTENTS  

• Open a Payment task
  • Option 1 – Workflow section
  • Option 2 – Tax years
• Payment Task Screen Explained
  • Tax payment transaction details
  • Provisional tax calculation basis
  • Print menu:
  • Instalment Amount Payable
  • Task Status
  • Notes and Files
  • Tax Traders 
• Update a Payment Task
• Update a Payment Tasks in Bulk
• Add a Prior Year RIT Transaction
• Edit the Forecasted RIT Amount
• Add an Estimate
• FAQs

Open a Payment task

There are two options for accessing the payment tasks for an entity:

Option 1 – Workflow section

Use this option to see all payment tasks split by their due date. 

1. Click the Workflow tab > Payments.
2. Click on the relevant due date. Past due dates are shown in red.
3. Select one of these options:
   • Click the group whose payment tasks you want to open, or
   • Click Not Grouped.
4. Click on an entity name to open the payment task.

Use this option to manage tax payment tasks by the due date. This summary screen shows all active payment tasks along with an overview of the provisional tax task settings (GST filing frequency, EOT status), the method applied, provisional liability, task progress and whom the task is assigned to.

On the Summary screen, you can open tasks to edit them or bulk edit multiple tasks.

Use the panels on the right hand side of the screen to filter out task lists.

Option 2 – Tax years

This option will show all the payments tasks for an entity.

1. Click on the entity name from the Home screen. 
2. Go to the Tax Years tab. 
3. Click on the relevant tax year to open the list of payment tasks.

Payment Task Screen Explained

The Payment task screen includes the following panels:

• Tax Payment transaction details
• Provisional tax calculation basis
• Instalment amount payable
• Task status
• Notes and Files
• Tax Traders quote information

Tax payment transaction details

Users can view/update tax payment transactions for the relevant tax years. Tax payment transactions are broadly categorised as Inland Revenue, Tax Pooling and Intra-Group. These transactions can be either automatically updated using an IR or Tax Pooling feed or manually entered.

• Use the year picker to view transactions for a particular year or select ‘All’ to see transactions across all years.
• Expand and collapse transaction details using the the up and down arrows 
• Transaction details can be exported to Excel using the cog.

Provisional tax calculation basis

This section of the Payment task screen shows the method used to calculate the provisional tax instalment liability. TaxLab will check the following to base the provisional tax liability on:

• If there is an estimate for the current year;
• If there is an assessment transaction for the prior year(s); or
• If there is a prior year return prepared in TaxLab with a status of ‘TaxLab – Filed’ or ‘TaxLab – Assessed’

The method used to determine the provisional tax liability is shaded in grey.

By default, the forecast amount is the same as the uplift or estimated amount. Users can modify the forecast amount, if required. Once a forecast amount is entered, the provisional tax liability is based on the new forecast amount.

Print menu:

• Click on ‘PDF Notice’ to view the payment notice on screen in PDF format
• Click on ‘Copy and paste’ to download the wording of the payment notice

For more information on printing payment notices, please click here.

Instalment amount payable

This section shows the amount due per instalment less the available and pending credits. It shows the amount payable as at each instalment date based on the provisional tax calculation method determined in the panel above.

Available credits include all tax payment transactions for the tax year, where:

• The Processed date of the transaction is on or before the payment due date; and 
• Applied as Tax Paid is ticked or the Tax Paid tag is turned on.

Pending credits are available credits where ‘Is Pending’ is ticked or the Pending tag is turned on.

Task status

Progress status allows users to track the workflow on the payment tasks. Please note that if the progress status is set to ‘Sent’ or ‘Not Required’, the payment task calculation will not run/refresh.

The ‘Automatically Closed’ status is system generated. Any tasks in TaxLab that passed before the taxpayer was created are automatically closed by the system. Users can change the record status of the task from ‘Archive‘ to ‘Active’.

Please note that once this has been changed, users will not be able to change the status back to ‘Automatically closed’. Going forward, the ‘Sent’ or ‘Not Required’ status can be used to close such tasks.

Notes and files

Use the notes panel to add comments against the payment task. Users can also use the Files panel to manage files, if required.

Tax Traders 

Users can obtain Tax Traders quotes for using tax pooling, based on the information on the payment task. This panel shows the financing interest rate and fee applied to the provisional tax liability. 

To print off the Tax Traders quote, use the Print menu from the top of the Payment task screen. Select Tax Traders as the Provisional tax template.

Update a payment task

You can update the progress of a payment task and the user it is assigned to. You can also add a note or attach a file to the task.

1. Open the payment task.
2. In the Task panel on the right, update the task as required:
   • Select the new status from the Progress drop-down list.
   • Select the new user from the Assigned To drop-down list.
3. Optional: Type a note in the Note box.
4. Optional: Upload a file.

Update a payment tasks in bulk

You can update the Progress, GST frequency and EOT status of multiple payment tasks at the same time. You can also update the user the tasks are assigned to.

1. Select the applicable option:
   • Click Workflow > Payments > click the relevant date. Select the check box of the group you want to update.
   • Click Workflow > Payments > click the relevant date. Click Not Grouped > select the check boxes of the entities you want to update.
2. Click on Edit
3. Update the relevant settings and click Save changes to XX tasks.

Add a prior year RIT transaction

If an IRD connection has been set up to pull through the latest IRD transactions, the system will automatically identify the assessment transaction (Return debit transaction) in the previous tax year.

If this is your first year in using TaxLab , you will need to manually add a prior year RIT for TaxLab to automatically calculate your provisional tax payment.

1. Open the payment task.
2. In the Tax Payments section, click New > Inland Revenue.
3. Edit default tax year and change the date.
4. Under Transaction, select Return debit and enter the amount.
5. Optional: Edit the default Tax return, Tax provision and Imputation Credit Account settings.
6. Optional: Add a note.
7. Click Save.

Edit the forecasted RIT amount

1. Open the payment task.
2. Click in the Forecast box and enter the new amount.
3. Click out of the box.

Add an estimate

1. Open the payment task.
2. On the bottom of the page, click New > Estimate.
3. Optional: Edit the default tax year and account.
4. Select the transaction date and enter the amount.
5. Optional: Edit the default Tax return, Tax provision and Imputation Credit Account settings.
6. Optional: Add a note.
7. Click Save.

FAQs

Please refer to our FAQs article on Payment tasks for more help.