Novopay lumping non-taxable allowances into income and deducting TAX.
Non-taxable allowances such as Mileage Allowance have been added to Teachers taxable income and paid at lower than the lowest rate on the civil service scale. For Teachers wanting to check their payments the correct rates are
From the collective Agreement
5.4.1 Where a teacher is authorised to use his/her own vehicle on school business, he/she will be reimbursed at the appropriate Inland Revenue mileage rate.
From IRD.
Standard mileage rate for motor vehicles
The mileage rate for motor vehicles is 77 cents per kilometre
These Allowances are TAX free
How does 58KM get paid at $21.98 and taxed when it should have been paid at $44.66 and not taxed. A breach of the collective agreement I wonder if the PPTA knows and what they are doing about it?
It is difficult to imagine how The Ministry and Novopay will ever be able to correct all the tax and payment errors within the system and with each successive run of the payroll, these uncorrected errors are more deeply buried. It would be a tragedy if the issues were left till the next Tax round and underpaid teachers expected to fund the government between now and June next year. Personally I’m wondering why the Dept. of Labour and IRD haven’t stepped into the fray. Surely there is an ACT or Regulation governing the accuracy of payroll and TAX records.
It might be easier to ask the Ministry what exactly they have got right, it would make for a much shorter story I’m sure. In the ODT http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/227021/school-payroll-nightmare-continues-ppta-president today Leanne Gibson is quoted “ the Ministry would cover all costs such as penalties or missed interest payments incurred by staff because of a missing or incorrect pay”. This should have an interesting follow up perhaps a headline like “Teachers forced to disclose confidential financial records to receive compensation”.
The arrogance of the ministry in the Novopay saga is astounding as is the secretive way problems are being dealt with. They have still not contacted the people who weren’t paid to even discuss compensation. Anyone’s income is a very personal thing IRD and statistics even call it personal income. It’s time that the ministry realised this and dealt with the victims personally. Now is the time to be talking compensation. The victims are ready.
I would suggest the Ministry of Education’s payroll provider should be considering a name change from Talent2 to Talentless1 and any other organisation thinking of contracting their services should think again. I attempted to phone the senior management at Talent2 and was told by their telephonist that she was not allowed to transfer calls through. I left my details but the call hasn’t been returned after 8 days.