I have a PAYG Liability account as well as a PAYG Withholdings Payable account. Payroll uses one and GST the other, when it looks like they should be the same. Fix?

Hi JV11, 

Thank you for reaching out. 

For the use of the 2 accounts: PAYG Liability and PAYG Withholdings Payable, I would suggest consulting with an accounting professional. You can find QuickBooks Online Certified accountants and bookkeepers in your area by clicking on the link below:

Find an accounting advisor near you

Essentially, the 2 accounts are designed to be separated so either one or both can be included in BAS depending on the business's needs. 

Thank you and please let us know if you have any questions. 

I have the same problem - surely I dont need to contact my accountant to have to fix this - in previous versions of Quickbooks online this wasn't a problem. Basically I just need one PAYG witholdings/liability account and for the BAS and Payroll to talk to each other!! 

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@Intuit Zac wrote:

Hi JV11, 

 

Thank you for reaching out. 

 

For the use of the 2 accounts: PAYG Liability and PAYG Withholdings Payable, I would suggest consulting with an accounting professional. You can find QuickBooks Online Certified accountants and bookkeepers in your area by clicking on the link below:

 

Find an accounting advisor near you

 

Essentially, the 2 accounts are designed to be separated so either one or both can be included in BAS depending on the business's needs. 

 

Thank you and please let us know if you have any questions. 

---

Hi BS111,

During the setup stage of your QuickBooks Online account, the system creates default accounts for your chart of accounts. The same goes during the GST setup, default accounts are created for your account. The PAYG Liability and PAYG Withholding Payable accounts are default accounts automatically created on file.

If you need more help with your chart of accounts, I'd recommend contacting our Customer Care Team through chat or phone. That way, one of our support care agents can further check your account in a secure form.

You can also check this link to learn more about the Manage default and special accounts in your QuickBooks Online chart of accounts.

Feel free to post again in the Community if you need more help with QuickBooks Online. Have a great day!

Did you ever get a resolution for this? I have the same issue, and cannot update the default account in Payroll to PAYG Withholdings Payable. I have contacted support who say that it is designed to have separate accounts, with balances that just keep on growing......

Hi tracynz,

Are you lodging your PAYGW along with the BAS? What account are you planning to use moving forward? If PAYGW is enabled in GST center, QuickBooks Online will create a PAYG Withholdings Payable account. In QuickBooks Online the default account for PAYG Withholding is the PAYG Withholding Payable. This is where the payroll journals are exported after finalising a pay run.

All PAYGW amounts calculated in the finalised pay runs will be automatically exported to QBO as a journal entry. The GST section will pick up the total of all PAYGW amounts for the BAS/IAS period to be lodged.

If you wanted to keep one of the accounts only, you can either merge the two accounts or use a journal entry. However, it's best to consult your accountant to get more accounting information and to avoid messing up your books.

Here's how to check the default account set up in your payroll chart of accounts:

1. Click on the Employees tab.
2. Click on Payroll Settings.
3. Click on Chart of Accounts.
4. Click on Default Accounts.
5. Locate PAYG Liability Account, default account set is PAYG Withholdings Payable sometimes this is called PAYG Clearing account.

The setup of your payroll accounts determines the payroll journal entries containing the pay run data will be exported and used to record payroll expenses.

Also, you can check this link to learn more about Reporting PAYG Withholding on BAS and IAS.