Accept Parental Leave Pay for employees

How to accept our decision or ask for a review when you provide an employee Parental Leave Pay.

If we decide you must provide an employee’s Parental Leave Pay, we’ll send you a letter to let you know. You should accept our decision or ask for a review within 14 days. To accept our decision you need to give us an acceptance notice.

How to accept our decision or ask for a review

You’ll need to complete an acceptance notice online using Business Hub.

If you accept our decision, you’ll need to do all of the following:

  • accept our decision that you’ll provide Parental Leave Pay
  • give us your Australian Business Number (ABN)
  • give us your employee’s pay cycle details
  • give us your bank account details.

When you give us your bank account details, don’t include any hyphens. You don’t need to give us your employee’s bank account details.

If you don’t accept our decision, you’ll need to do the following:

  • decline our decision that you’ll provide Parental Leave Pay
  • upload supporting documents.

You will also have the option to provide a reason as to why you don’t accept the acceptance notice.

The easiest way to complete an acceptance notice is using Business Online Services. To do this:

  • Log in to Business Hub, on behalf of your business
  • Select Your services
  • Select Paid Parental Leave Services
  • Select New claimant
  • Select View for the employee you want to provide the notice for.

What else you need to do

If we decide you must provide an employee’s Parental Leave Pay, you must do all of the following:

  • provide Parental Leave Pay to your employee as per their usual pay cycle
  • withhold tax from Parental Leave Pay under the usual Pay As You Go (PAYG) withholding arrangements
  • give your employee a record of Parental Leave Pay within one working day of when you pay them
  • include Parental Leave Pay in the total amounts on your employee’s annual or part year payment summary.

We also need you to do all of the following:

  • keep a record of what we’ve paid you
  • keep a record of how much you’ve paid your employee
  • return any unpaid funds to us.

You should tell us if your employee stops being employed by you while you’re providing Parental Leave Pay. You should also tell us if they either:

  • return to work
  • work on a day they get Parental Leave Pay.

There are some exceptions where they can work and still get Parental Leave Pay. These are outlined in the Employer Toolkit. If you need to tell us, do it online using Business Online Services. To do this:

  • Log in to Business Hub, on behalf of your business
  • Select Your services
  • Select Paid Parental Leave Services
  • Select Existing claimant
  • Select View for the employee you want to provide the change in circumstances.

You should also tell us about changes the affect you getting the funds. These include:

  • your bank account changes
  • your employee’s pay cycle changes.

Finally, you should tell us if either of the following happen:

  • you get the wrong amount or can’t provide Parental Leave Pay
  • your business details change, for example you stop trading, sell your business, transfer ownership or merge with another business.

What you don’t need to do

There are some myths about the Paid Parental Leave scheme for employers. It’s important to understand that you don’t need to fund it or work out if your employee is eligible.

You also don’t need to do any of the following:

  • provide Parental Leave Pay to your employee before you’ve got funds from us
  • make extra superannuation contributions
  • accrue extra leave for employees
  • create a new bank account
  • report to us regularly
  • separately identify Parental Leave Pay in your annual financial statements.

You don’t need to pay either of the following:

  • extra worker’s compensation premium liabilities
  • extra payroll tax.

Read more about employers providing Parental Leave Pay.

How to appeal our decision

If you disagree with the decision, you should start by talking to us. We’ll check the decision, explain why we made it and correct any errors. If you still disagree, you can ask for a formal review. Read more about reviews and appeals of decisions in the Paid Parental Leave scheme Employer Toolkit.

Page last updated: 12 April 2024.
QC 52642