PAYG Tax Table

A PAYG tax table is an Australian Taxation Office schedule or formula used to work out how much tax an employer should withhold from a payment.

PAYG means “pay as you go”. A PAYG tax table turns an employee’s pay and declaration settings into a withholding amount for a particular pay period. Employers usually apply the same rules through payroll software rather than reading a printed table line by line.

This is an Australia-specific term. A PAYG tax table is not the same as the personal income tax rate table. It estimates withholding during the year; the employee’s final tax position is worked out from their total circumstances when their tax return is assessed.

Where PAYG Tax Tables Appear

Small businesses may see a PAYG tax table in:

payroll software settings and tax-table updates
draft pay runs, payroll reports and payslips
ATO weekly, fortnightly and monthly withholding publications
calculations for bonuses, commissions, leave and termination payments
accountant checks when withholding looks too high or too low

The table chosen depends on the payment type and frequency. Ordinary fortnightly wages use a different lookup from a bonus, an employment termination payment or a payment to a working holiday maker.

How A PAYG Tax Table Works In Practice

The practical process is:

Confirm the payment date and use the table or formula effective on that date.
Choose the schedule that matches the type and frequency of payment.
Apply the employee’s declaration settings, including residency, tax-free threshold, tax offsets, Medicare variation and STSL details where relevant.
Enter the gross earnings and apply the ATO’s rounding rules.
Review the calculated PAYG withholding before approving the pay run.

The ATO’s 2026 PAYG withholding tax tables were published on 19 May 2026. The ATO says all 15 withholding schedules and 12 tax tables were updated to apply from 1 July 2026. That effective date matters: an old table can produce the wrong withholding even when every employee setting is correct.

Simple Example

Assume a cafe employee earns $1,200 for a fortnight and the current table, using that employee’s valid declarations, returns $160 of withholding.

Illustrative Pay Calculation	What It Means	Amount
Gross Pay	Pay before withholding	$1,200
PAYG Withholding	Held back for the ATO	-$160
Net Pay Before Other Deductions		$1,040

The $160 is illustrative, not a reusable rate. A different pay date, frequency or declaration setting can change the result. The ATO’s tax withheld calculator is a useful official check for an individual scenario.

Why PAYG Tax Tables Matter

The withholding amount affects the employee’s take-home pay and the employer’s liability to the ATO. A stale table, wrong pay frequency or incorrect employee setting can create payroll corrections and an unexpected tax bill or refund.

Tax tables also make payroll review explainable. When a result looks unusual, the business can trace it back to the effective table, employee declarations, gross pay and rounding method instead of treating payroll software as a black box.

Regional Variations

Other countries use different systems. New Zealand has PAYE deduction tables and payday filing, while Ireland uses Revenue Payroll Notifications and real-time payroll reporting. Canada uses federal and provincial payroll deduction rules. These are not interchangeable with Australian PAYG tables.

How Gimbla Can Help

Gimbla Payroll keeps tax settings, gross pay, PAYG withholding, super and net pay together in the pay-run review. That makes it easier to check the current calculation before approving payment and reporting through Single Touch Payroll.

Helpful Gimbla Guides

In Short

A PAYG tax table converts an employee’s pay and declaration settings into an amount to withhold. Use the schedule effective for the payment date and review the result before approving payroll.