Income tax: Pay As You Go - withholding from payments to employees

TR 2005/16 provides guidance as to whether an individual is paid as an employee for the purposes of section 12-35 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953, which imposes an obligation on the paying entity to withhold an amount from the relevant payment. The Ruling considers the various indicators the courts have considered in establishing whether a person engaged by another entity is an employee within the common law meaning of the term.

It is being replaced by Taxation Ruling TR 2022/D3 Income tax: pay as you go withholding - who is an employee?, which will issue on 15 December 2022. TR 2022/D3 incorporates the Commissioner's view expressed in TR 2005/16 to the extent that it continues to apply and updates the Commissioner's view to incorporate recent developments in case law.