The Australian Tax Office is required to deduct Child Support from employees’ wages under the Child Support Scheme. Employers will be approached by the Child Support Agency and advised as to the start date and amount to be deducted each pay period, and employees are notified in writing of their requirements.
Child support deductions in WageEasy from version 8 are set up as follows:
Go to Setup, Allowances, as a Deduction After Tax
The deduction can be a percentage or an amount type. The amount or percentage field can be left blank, and the value added to the individual employee, so you can use the same deduction code for more than one employee if required.
When attaching to employees, tick the box Override Default Amount and then place the $ amount to be deducted each pay in the Amount: box.
Note: Each employee with a child support deduction will need their own deduction.
Click the STP Reporting Tab.
Use the dropdown next to the Reporting Group and select Exclude from STP Reporting.
Note: on STP Phase 2 The reporting of Child Support Deductions to Services Australia via STP2 is currently voluntary as per the ATO Employer Reporting Guidelines for STP2, as such Wage Easy will not include these values when STP2 is enabled at this stage. If reporting Child Support deductions becomes mandatory via STP2 WageEasy will be upgraded accordingly. Until this time you should continue to process and report your Child Support payments to Services Australia as you do now.
Protected Earnings
When you receive correspondence advising that Child Support is to be deducted from an Employee Net Pay they may also advise of a Protected Earnings figure. There is no actual field for Child Support Protected Earnings.
Here, you are able to gather more information on the Protected Earnings for 2025
How to pay child support to the Child Support Agencies?
This deduction can be linked and be directed automatically to a 3rd party bank account by entering in bank account details, on the Bank tab of the allowance in Setup.
This deduction would then be attached as an employee allowance via Employee, Payments, Allowances. The amount to be deducted is set up at the allowance level and the total amount to be deducted from the employee can be entered in the limit field, at the employee level.
