Two employers in one year: why these returns are worth a second look.

A year with two employers, or a change of jobs part way through, is one of the most common reasons a return ends up wrong in the taxpayer's favour. Two payment summaries, two sets of payroll settings and two lots of work-related costs and usually only one of them gets any attention at tax time.

Key points

Two employers means two sets of income figures and two sets of deductions and returns often only reflect one properly.
Termination and redundancy payments carry their own tax treatment and are often applied incorrectly.
The review is free; a fee applies only where an amendment produces an additional refund.

The tax-free threshold is the usual culprit. Claim it with both employers and too little tax is withheld; claim it with neither and too much is. Either way the return is meant to square it up, but only if the figures were entered correctly and nothing was left out. Add a redundancy or termination payment, a period of leave or a move for work and the number of places a return can go astray multiplies.

A registered tax agent checks the return against your ATO record, reconciles the income from each employer and looks at the deductions each job brought with it: uniforms for one, tools or travel for the other, a licence renewed in between. Where something is missing, they tell you and, with your approval, prepare an amendment.

What tends to be missed

Deductions tied to the job you left. Protective gear, memberships and equipment bought for a role you no longer hold are still deductible for the period you held it. The costs of the new job in its first months, when receipts were not yet a habit. And where the two jobs were in different fields, the different rules that apply to each.

Overlapping employment, where both jobs ran at once for a period, is worth particular attention because withholding settings are rarely right when the second job starts.

Redundancy, termination and leave

Employment termination payments and genuine redundancy amounts have their own treatment and their own concessional limits and they are a frequent source of error on returns prepared without specialist attention. Extended leave, unpaid or paid, changes your income for the year and can change which offsets apply.

What happens next

Tell us the income years involved and that you had more than one employer. A registered tax agent contacts you, confirms their registration and, with your authority, reviews the return. If it was right, you are told so at no cost.

General information only. It does not take account of your circumstances and is not tax advice. Untax is a marketing and referral service and is not a registered tax agent.