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Australian tax: How do I pay salary+tax for a part-time personal assistant?

• Hi, I am an Australian resident for tax purposes (European expat on a 457 visa). I would like to employ a personal assistant to help me with some time consuming tasks like shopping, running errands and cleaning. I do not run a business, so this "employment" would be something that I would pay for as an individual. How do I best pay tax and salary for simple services bought from another individual (assuming that they do not have an ABN so that they can invoice me)? My own thoughts: Do I just deduct a percentage of the person's salary and transfer that to the tax office referencing their tax file number, or is it trickier than that? If we e.g. agree on $15 / hour, how much should I as an employer pay in tax? Also; do I need to keep track of the services bought when I do my personal taxes at the end of the year? Some countries in Europe allow for services like this to be tax-deductible - is this also the case in Australia? Any "best practices" advice on hiring and managing a part-time assistant in Sydney are welcome. Cheers and thanks in advance.

• Answer:

  Those services are not tax deductible. As you are a private individual and not a business, you will not need to deduct any tax from whatever you pay, and nor will you need to report anything to the taxation department. In cases like these, it is the employee's responsibility to ensure that they submit a tax return and pay whatever tax should be paid. You should keep records of all amounts paid in case of an investigation of the taxpayer's affairs at some time. Because I believe very strongly that everyone should pay their taxes and do the right thing, I would 'dob' them in to the ATO and/or Centrelink if I knew that they were avoiding tax or incorrectly claiming Centrelink benefits, but you may not feel that way.