Manual tax adjustments
A tax adjustment overrides KAMI's calculated tax for one employee, by an amount you specify. It is the escape hatch for cases the engine cannot know about — and, used carelessly, the fastest way to make a year's tax irreconcilable.
Where: Payroll › the payroll run › the payslip, and by import for many at once You need: payroll rights for that batch cycle
Use this only when the engine cannot know
| The situation | Do |
|---|---|
| A correction only your tax authority or adviser can determine | A tax adjustment |
| Tax looks wrong and you do not know why | Investigate first — do not adjust |
| The rate table is wrong | Fix the income tax type |
| A contribution should be deductible and is not | Fix the deductible list on the tax type |
| An employee joined mid-year | Record previous-employer income |
⚠️ An adjustment silences a symptom. If the underlying configuration is wrong, every other employee is still wrong and only this one is masked — which is worse than the original problem, because it now looks handled.
Before adjusting, be able to say in one sentence why the calculated figure is wrong and what the correct figure is based on. If you cannot, the problem is not ready to be adjusted.
How the adjustment applies
The adjustment is combined with the calculated tax to produce tax payable. It is applied to the tax rather than to gross pay, so it changes what is withheld without changing what the employee earned.
Tax payable is held as a negative figure, because it is owed to the authority — see Payslip tax details explained.
How to apply one
For one employee: open the payslip in the run, enter the tax adjustment, and recalculate if required.
For many: use the tax adjustment import. Prepare the file with the employee and the amount, upload, and review the validation output before committing.
Always check the resulting payslip afterwards. An adjustment entered with the wrong sign is easy to make and hard to spot in a total.
What Happens Next
- The adjustment appears in the payslip's tax detail and flows into tax payable.
- It is included in period and year-end reporting, so it must be defensible.
- Recalculating a payslip does not preserve manual work — check the adjustment is still there after any recalculation.
- Because tax is annual, an adjustment in one period does not automatically correct the estimate for later periods. Consider whether the remaining periods need attention too.
Tips
- Record the reason with every adjustment, including who authorised it. This is the payroll entry most likely to be questioned in an audit.
- Check the sign. An adjustment in the wrong direction doubles the error rather than removing it.
- Prefer fixing the configuration. If two employees need the same adjustment, it is a configuration problem wearing a disguise.
- Review adjustments before year-end. They affect the annual reconciliation, and December is too late to reconstruct why one was made in March.
- Re-check after any recalculation of an adjusted payslip.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: The adjustment disappeared. The payslip was recalculated. Re-enter it, and avoid recalculating that payslip again.
Q: The tax moved by twice the adjustment. The sign is inverted. Tax payable is held as a negative figure.
Q: Should we adjust every month for the same employee? No. A recurring adjustment means the configuration is wrong — find it.
Q: Does an adjustment change the employee's gross pay? No. It changes tax withheld, not earnings.
Q: Will it show at year-end? Yes, and it must be explainable.
Screenshots
These screenshots came from our previous help centre and may show an earlier version of the interface.
