We are pleased to present EmpowerHR 2025.1
What's new
Review NZ legislative changes and determine code requirements
EMP-9531
Requested internally (Fusion5)
Located at: Tasks > Payroll > Payroll Processing > Pay Calculations Control
Inland Revenue (Te Tari Taake) New Zealand is introducing a new process for taxing extra pay paid to a terminating or terminated employee (that is, when employment ends). To meet this requirement, we have modified the pay calc process for NZ's extra pay accordingly.
Here’s an explanation of the new process, based on an extract from the Payroll Calculations and Business Rules Specification (1 April 2025 to 31 August 2026, 03.02.2025 V0.8 – Inland Revenue TeTari Taake)
 | The following information is not intended to replace advice from your tax adviser or Inland Revenue. We encourage you to consult your tax adviser if any areas require clarification. |
From 1 April 2025, there will be separate calculations for taxing extra pay for current or terminating employees.
Inland Revenue is introducing a new method for taxing extra pay “when employment ends”. This new routine will apply only when taxing extra pay for a terminating employee.
The existing taxation routine for extra pay is retained for use when taxing extra pay for current employees.
Each taxation routine uses a slightly different process to determine the tax rate for taxing extra pay as described below.
| Rates mentioned in the following explanation and examples may change in future. |
1. Taxing extra pay for a current employee
- The existing extra pay taxation routine remains unchanged for current employees.
- When an employee holds an STC tax code, tax the extra pay using the rate specified in the STC certificate.
- For all other tax codes, identify the current employee’s total value of taxable earnings (excluding all extra pay) paid in the last 4 weeks date range ending on the payment date for the current extra pay.
- Multiply the 4-weeks’ earnings by 13 to produce an annualised income figure.
- Add the current value of extra pay to the annualised income figure to arrive at the gross amount.
| When an employee uses a secondary tax code, add the secondary tax code’s low threshold amount to the annualised income and the extra pay to calculate the gross amount. |
- Compare the gross amount to the current annual earnings thresholds to find the relevant tax rate to tax the extra pay. When the gross amount is:
- greater than $180,000 the tax rate is 39%
- greater than $78,100 but less than or equal to $180,000 the tax rate is 33%
- greater than $53,500 but less than or equal to $78,100 the tax rate is 30%
- greater than $15,600 but less than or equal to $53,500 the tax rate is 17.5%
- less than or equal to $15,600 the tax rate is 10.5%
- Student Loan repayments and ACC Earners’ Levy, when applicable, are calculated in addition to the above taxation.
2. Taxing extra pay when employment ends.
- Inland Revenue is introducing this new process for taxing extra pay being paid to a terminating or terminated employee (ie. “when employment ends”).
- When an employee holds an STC tax code, tax the extra pay using the rate specified in the STC certificate.
- For all other tax codes, start with identifying a terminating employee’s total value of taxable earnings (excluding all extra pay) paid in the last two paid pay periods* preceding the pay period containing the extra pay.
- Total the taxable earnings paid in the 2 pay periods. When employee was paid in:
- 2 weekly pay periods, multiply the total by 26
- 2 fortnightly pay periods, multiply the total by 13
- 2 monthly pay periods, multiply the total by 6
The result is the annualised income amount.
- Add the value of the current extra pay to the annualised income figure to arrive at the gross amount.
| When an employee uses a secondary tax code, add the secondary tax code’s low threshold amount to the annualised income and the extra pay to calculate the gross amount. |
- Compare the gross amount against the current annual earnings thresholds to find the relevant tax rate to tax the extra pay. When the gross amount is:
- greater than $180,000 the tax rate is 39%
- greater than $78,100 but less than or equal to $180,000 the tax rate is 33%
- greater than $53,500 but less than or equal to $78,100 the tax rate is 30%
- greater than $15,600 but less than or equal to $53,500 the tax rate is 17.5%
- less than or equal to $15,600 the tax rate is 10.5%
- Student Loan repayments and ACC Earners’ Levy, when applicable, are calculated in addition to the above taxation.
*Understanding the term “the last two paid pay periods preceding the pay period containing the extra pay”...
When taxing extra pay at the end of employment, Inland Revenue has specified that the taxable earnings, from the last two paid pay periods preceding the pay period containing the extra pay, should be totalled and annualised when determining an employee’s extra pay tax rate. Inland Revenue also refers to these same pay periods as “the two most recent periods for which payment was made” elsewhere in its instructions.
To clarify the process for taxing extra pay when employment ends, and the interpretation of Inland Revenue’s terms “the last two paid pay periods preceding the pay period containing the extra pay” and “the two most recent periods for which payment was made”, we have created the following example. The details are based on an example supplied by Inland Revenue (Payroll Calculations & Business Rules specification 2026 V0.8, dated 3 February 2025, pp.55-56, example 2).
Example
| Weekly Pay Period Date | Pay Period Details | Taxable Gross Earnings (exclude all extra pays) |
|---|---|---|
| 25 April 2025 | Pay for hours worked plus Extra pay $3,187.43 payable at termination as at last day of this pay period. | $1,222.00 |
| 18 April 2025 | Unpaid leave | $0.00 |
| 11 April 2025 | Pay for hours worked and paid leave. | $1,266.76 |
| 04 April 2025 | Pay for hours worked. | $1,222.00 |
- Using the above pay details, determine the tax rate for taxing the extra pay being paid to the terminating employee. Start by identifying the earnings from the two most recent periods for which payment was made:
- Ignore the current pay period 25 April because it is the current pay period in which the extra pay is being processed.
- Ignore period 18 April because the employee was not paid any taxable earnings.
- Include taxable earnings from pay periods 4 April ($1,222.00) and 11 April ($1,266.76) because they are the last two paid pay periods preceding the pay period containing the extra pay.
- Annualise total taxable earnings from the two most recent weekly pay periods for which payment was made:
($1,222.00 + $1,266.76) x 26 = $64,707.76 annualised income
- Add the extra pay to the annualised income:
$3,187.43 + $64,707.76 = $67,895.19 gross amount
- Compare the gross amount $67,895.19 to the current annual earnings thresholds to find the relevant tax rate for taxing the extra pay:
$67,895.19 is greater than $53,500 and less than $78,100 therefore the tax rate is 30%.
- Calculate tax on the extra pay:
$3,187.43 x 30% = $956.22
- Check if the extra pay is liable for ACC Earner’s Levy?
- The gross amount is less than the maximum earnings threshold ($152,790.00) for ACC Earner’s Levy therefore calculate ACC Earner’s Levy on the extra pay:
$3,187.43 x 1.67% = $53.23
- Total PAYE to be deducted from the extra pay $3,187.43:
Tax $956.22 + ACC EL $53.23 = $1,009.45
- Net amount of extra pay due to the terminating employee:
$3,187.43 – PAYE $1,009.45 = $2,177.98
Prevent a payroll officer from deleting a position if the position is used previously
iHelp: 511643
EMP-9218
Requested by: The Kids Research Institute Australia
Located at:
Tasks > Establishment > Positions > Create Positions
- Now, if a position is fully set up and active, an officer is not able to delete the position.
- If a position is fully set up but never used, an officer can delete the position.
- An officer can delete unused positions.
- If a position is fully setup and redundant or abolished, an officer is given the option to delete.
Cannot re-use super fund for an employee
iHelp: 428023 #13399
EMP-7376
Requested by: Hospharm (HPS)
Located at:
Tasks > Employees >Employee Information > Super Fund Details
This enhancement to EmpowerHR allows a super fund to be re-used with a different Date Joined date.
Before this enhancement, a super fund previously used by an Employee could not be re-used.
Deductions, payroll giving, payment instructions requests - additional validation for maximum amount
EMP-8782
Requested internally (Fusion5)
Located at:
Requests > Deductions
Requests > Payroll Giving
The enhancement uses the installation setting 
called (rtmv) Regular transaction max amount to determine the maximum value. If the amount in the rtmv Float field is:
The installation setting is available in EmpowerHR desktop at:
Administration > Agency Management > Installation Settings
- more than 0 (zero), EmpowerHR uses this amount as the maximum value allowed
- 0 (zero), EmpowerHR uses the default amount of 9999999.99 as the maximum value allowed.
In the case of payroll giving, the minimum value allowed continues to be hardcoded to 2
We changed browser validation to show a generic message if the amount a user enters does not fall within the minimum and maximum value range. Generic messages are safer because they reduce the risk of information leakage which attackers could exploit. This change was made with software vulnerability in mind.
Improvement: inefficient codes in super exemption calculation in pay calc process
EMP-9580
Requested internally (Fusion5)
This improvement to EmpowerHR provides some code efficiencies in pay calculations, delivering improved performance when calculating super for employees under 18.
GESB SAFF final report errors resolved
iHelp: 551813
EMP-9659
Requested by: Department of Training and Workforce Development (DTWD), Metropolitan Cemeteries Board (MCB)
Located at:
Background Jobs > Payroll Processing >Interfaces >GESB SAFF File
When running the GESB SAFF interface file (criogess), EmpowerHR now uses LIKE for the condition code for employees with multiple employments (except for contractor which the system assumes is con).
Before this enhancement, EmpowerHR originally looked for f (full time employee) and p (part time employee) and the clients use ft and pt which caused errors.
WGEA changes
EMP-9652
Requested internally (Fusion5)
Located at:
Background Jobs > Extracts > WGEA Extract
We have enhanced EmpowerHR's WGEA Extract (crrwgeax) feature to help ensure the data you report on meets the latest government changes to the WGEA reporting requirements.
The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 requires non-public sector employers with 100 or more employees to report annually to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) on their workforce gender composition, employment conditions, and remuneration.
EmpowerHR users can extract the data needed for preparing reports to WGEA.
In brief, the changes are:
- Year of Birth - required to report on the year of birth for each employee included in the Workplace Profile.
- Primary workplace location (Postcode) - required to provide the postcode of an employee’s primary workplace location. If an employee attends multiple different locations for work, this is the postcode of the work location where they worked most of the time.
- Remuneration of the CEO, Heads of Business, and casually employed managers - required to report the remuneration of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or equivalent, Heads of Business (HOB), and any casually employed managers.
- For the unit level Workplace Profile template - required to provide an annualised/FTE base salary and total remuneration amount for these employees.
- For the STP Workplace Profile template - required to provide remuneration data in their component parts, as well as an ordinary hours figure and start date for these employees.
- You do not need to report on the remuneration of overseas managers (OSM) who are more senior than the CEO or equivalent, and who report offshore. The Reporting Level to CEO column is no longer required in the output.
| |
Also, the file now needs to be run by ABN if you have multiple ABNs. |
Changes to the way student loan repayments are calculated
EMP-9720
Requested internally (Fusion5)
Located at:
Control Tables > Taxation > Study and Training
The Australian Government will reduce the financial burden of student loan repayments and make the repayment system fairer by moving to a system of student loan repayments based on marginal rates from 1 July 2025.
EmpowerHR has implemented this calculation change when an employee's pay slip displays the repayment amount separately to tax. For employees without this separation, the changes are automatically implemented in the tax tables loaded onto your system before the beginning of the financial year.
DFES GL interface (msiofhgl) - default project number now configurable
The default project number on the DFES GL Interface is no longer hard-coded. It now lives in a system parameter set to 100000. The Project Number field on the Parameters tab is pre-filled with that value, and you can override it per-run. An administrator updates the parameter to change the standard default.
Pay Certification workflows not generated to the configured fallback position
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