Fill Out ATO Withholding Declaration (NAT 3093) Online

What the Withholding Declaration is used for

The declaration updates the information your payer uses to calculate withholding under the pay as you go (PAYG) system. Common reasons to lodge one include becoming or ceasing to be an Australian resident for tax purposes, claiming or stopping the tax-free threshold, advising your payer that you have a Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), VET Student Loan (VSL), Financial Supplement (FS), Student Start-up Loan (SSL) or Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan (AASL) debt, or that you have repaid such a loan in full, and claiming or varying entitlement to a tax offset, including the seniors and pensioners tax offset (SAPTO).

Before you can lodge a Withholding Declaration you must already have given your payer your tax file number details, either by quoting your TFN or by claiming an exemption from quoting it. The declaration builds on that earlier information rather than replacing it, and a new declaration overrides any declaration you gave the same payer previously.

Who completes this form

Employees and other payees complete Section A when their circumstances change with an existing payer, or when they start receiving payments from a new payer and want the withholding adjusted. Working holiday makers on subclass 417 or 462 visas have their own residency box and must answer no to the tax-free threshold question, and foreign residents generally answer no as well unless they receive an Australian Government pension or allowance.

The payer completes Section B with their Australian business number or withholding payer number and business name, then uses the answers together with the ATO withholding tax tables to work out how much to withhold from future payments.

How to fill out NAT 3093

Section A runs through eight questions followed by a signed declaration:

• Questions 1 and 2: your name and date of birth.
• Question 3: your tax file number, or the reason you are not quoting one, such as a pending TFN application or a pensioner exemption.
• Question 4: whether you are an Australian resident for tax purposes, a foreign resident, or a working holiday maker. Select only one.
• Question 5: whether you want to claim the tax-free threshold from this payer. Claim it from only one payer at a time unless your total income from all sources will be under the threshold.
• Question 6: whether you have a HELP, VSL, FS, SSL or AASL debt, so the payer can withhold the study and training support loan component.
• Question 7: whether you want to claim or vary a tax offset by reducing withholding, with your estimated total offset amount.
• Question 8: whether you want to claim or vary the seniors and pensioners tax offset, and whether you are single, a member of a couple, or a member of an illness-separated couple.
• Sign and date the declaration, then give the form to your payer.

Where the form goes

The completed declaration goes to your employer or payer, never to the ATO. The payer files it securely, treats the information as sensitive because it contains your TFN, and keeps it for the current and following financial year even if you lodge a new declaration or leave the job.

If you would rather skip paper entirely, the ATO also lets you complete withholding declarations through ATO online services in myGov, and larger variations to reduce withholding are handled through the separate PAYG withholding variation application (NAT 2036).