This guide explains Samoa payroll requirements and how to use the country-specific settings in SmoothPay. It covers salary and wage tax, P4 and P6 reporting, SNPF contributions and deductions, ACC, leave, final pays, classifications, banking and bringing existing payroll records into SmoothPay.

Use this guide for the Western Samoa / WS payroll configuration. Amounts are in Samoan tala (WST). Rates and employment requirements below were checked in September 2026. Apply the employee's employment agreement and any instructions from Revenue, SNPF or ACC alongside the relevant statutory requirements.

For the common steps of selecting employees, entering pay, reviewing payslips and completing a payrun, use The pay process.

Samoa's Ministry of Revenue administers salary and wage tax, commonly called PAYE. Employers must register and account for employees, including employees whose earnings are below the tax threshold. Ordinary wages, paid leave, overtime, bonuses, commissions and taxable allowances form part of salary and wage income. See Revenue's salary and wage tax guidance.

SmoothPay calculates salary and wage tax automatically using Samoa's tax tables, the employee's pay cycle and taxable earnings, with any applicable instructed variation. Revenue publishes the following annual marginal bands:

See Revenue's published rates.

For example, WST 1,600 of ordinary taxable earnings in a fortnight gives WST 249.46 tax under normal treatment without an override.

Samoa's income-tax rules generally include allowances and reimbursements, with an exception for amounts actually spent carrying out employment duties on the employer's behalf. Use the corresponding taxable or non-taxable allowance classification. Some benefits also require tax treatment even though no cash is paid to the employee. See Income Tax Act 2012, section 61.

Taxable non-cash benefit includes the benefit in taxable pay and creates an equal deduction so its value is not also paid in cash. SNPF inclusion is controlled by the allowance code, and ACC inclusion by the ACC agency's earnings base.

Qualifying retirement and redundancy or loss-of-office payments have special rules under section 61. Within the statutory service-related limit, 5% of a qualifying payment is included in taxable income; this is not a 5% tax rate. Excess amounts are included in full. Establish eligibility and the required treatment with Revenue or your adviser, then confirm the payroll setup with SmoothPay support. A code named RETIRE can simply be an ordinary taxable allowance and does not by its name apply the concession.

Monthly PAYE returns and payment are due by the 15th of the following month. The annual P6 reconciliation is due by 15 February following the calendar year. See Revenue's filing and payment requirements.

Complete the relevant pays before producing the reporting files, then use the output to complete Revenue's filing and payment process.

The workbook contains:

The P4's NPF amount is the employee contribution, so it is not the full employee-plus-employer SNPF remittance. Use the SNPF schedule for that total.

The P4 template reviewed here displays NPF (9%) in the heading, although its contribution amounts use the configured employee rate of 10%. This is an outdated heading. Use the workbook's figures to complete the return; filing and payment are completed separately through Revenue's process.

P6A accompanies P6 and is included in the same workbook. See Revenue's P6 form and P6A requirements.

The Samoa National Provident Fund (SNPF) contribution is 10% from the employee plus 10% from the employer. SNPF describes the contribution base broadly, including wages, overtime, allowances, bonuses and other monetary employment compensation. Contributions and the monthly schedule are due by the 7th of the following month. See SNPF's employer guide and current contribution information.

New employees inherit the company contribution defaults. For existing employees, use their individual settings or the update options described in Super tab - Settings screen.

The screen also offers Minimum $ and Permanent exemption from super rules for applicable individual arrangements.

Contributions continue during employment despite reaching retirement age or making a withdrawal. An alternative fund requires the relevant Board approval. The Act also places the whole contribution on the employer in the specified below-minimum-pay case; that provision does not permit underpayment of wages. See National Provident Fund Act, sections 22 and 29.

Work, leave and allowance codes have an Include in SNPF calculations setting. In the Codes screen, open the original code to view or change this setting. SmoothPay uses the included payments as the contribution base.

The schedule has separate Employee and Employer contribution columns for each pay date, a transaction-type field and totals. The payday version identifies the selected payday and its pay frequency; the monthly version covers the first to last day of the selected month. Use Member list in the SNPF report category to review membership records.

For example, earnings of WST 2,748.48 with both rates at 10% produce WST 274.85 employee contributions and WST 274.85 employer contributions: WST 549.70 in total. If that is the only pay in the month, the payday and monthly schedules have the same total, although their reporting periods differ.

Use the current SNPF schedule reports for the return. Generating the spreadsheet is separate from submitting it through the SNPF employer portal or paying the contributions.

These deductions use an Agency classification and an employee payment arrangement. The classification determines the type of deduction; the employee arrangement supplies the amount and relevant reference.

Use Setting up payments/recurring deductions to create the agency and employee payment arrangement. For Samoa, select the relevant classification below and enter its member or loan identifier in Particulars. These references identify the contribution or repayment in SNPF reporting.

Enter the member or loan identifier in Particulars as shown above. Reference holds additional reference information for payment schedules.

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) specifies a 1% worker levy and a separate 1% employer levy on earnings. Register the employer and follow ACC's reporting and remittance instructions. See ACC's services information and employer FAQs.

SmoothPay automatically calculates the employee's 1% ACC levy when preparing their pay. The ACC component appears in the Staff screen, Payments tab, and in the Payrun screen, Recurring deduct tab. It is included in the payslip and reporting outputs.

In the Settings screen, the Options tab includes Include ACC contributions in costing analysis. This includes the employer levy in costing. The employee levy appears as a payslip deduction; the employer levy is an additional employer cost.

Pay the levies according to the employer's ACC payment timetable.

For employers covered by the private-sector and state-owned-enterprise wage order, the minimum hourly rate is WST 5.24 from 1 July 2026. The scheduled increases are WST 5.65 from 1 July 2027 and WST 6.05 from 1 July 2028. See MCIL's minimum-wage order.

Use Salaries & Waged employees, Piece workers and Independent contractors for the corresponding employment setup, applying the Samoa requirements above.

Ordinary overtime generally attracts at least time-and-a-half, subject to the applicable work arrangements and exceptions. Sunday and public-holiday work have separate rules. Establish which rule applies before choosing the payment code or agreeing time off. See MCIL's Employee and Employer Guideline.

Use Automatic overtime, Automatic TOIL/RDO or Manual TOIL/RDO for the setup of the applicable arrangement.

The Samoa defaults maintain annual and sick leave in days, each accruing 10 days per year. SmoothPay calculates the To date balance automatically.

The minimum annual and sick leave entitlements are 10 days, with 20 days' carry-forward and the ability to agree more. Use an enhanced employment agreement where applicable. See MCIL's Employee and Employer Guideline.

Annual leave follows 12 months' continuous service, including probation, with pro-rata use during the accrual year. Sick leave allows pro-rata access after three months; an illness absence of at least three days requires a medical certificate. Annual leave may be paid out at the employee's choice with employer approval. See Labour and Employment Relations Act, sections 40–42.

Samoa annual leave uses the days method, and its liability is valued from the To date balance. This includes the relevant accrual to date. The anniversary balance is not the basis of the liability calculation. See How leave balances work for the balance mechanics.

For example, with an eight-hour standard day and a WST 20 hourly rate, eight hours of annual leave pays WST 160 and consumes one day. The employee's contract hours determine the conversion between hours and days.

Use Processing Leave and Terminations to enter leave. Configuring leave settings, Adjusting Leave balances and Reviewing & reading leave balances cover individual variations, opening balances, adjustments, payslip balances and leave reports.

Maternity leave offers at least four weeks at full pay plus two weeks unpaid, or six weeks at two-thirds pay. Agree the option before preparing the payments. See MCIL's Employee and Employer Guideline.

Maternity eligibility includes 12 months' service and a medical certificate. Paternity leave is at least five paid days, subject to the service, evidence and request conditions. Check the full conditions in sections 43–46 of the Labour and Employment Relations Act.

Record the agreed payment using the appropriate leave code. Other Leave with Auto-balance records event-based usage. Bereavement and other contractual leave follow the employee's employment agreement.

A public holiday on a day the employee is ordinarily required to work attracts the ordinary pay they would otherwise have earned when they take the day off. Worked-holiday arrangements require separate consideration under section 39 and the employment agreement. See Labour and Employment Relations Act, section 39.

Enter an unworked paid holiday in the Leave taken tab using the public-holiday leave code. Enter hours actually worked in the Work tab using the code for the applicable worked-holiday arrangement. The supplied Samoa PUBLIC (worked) code uses an Overtime classification and multiplier 2 for payment at double time.

Use the Public holidays calendar to view holiday dates.

Final pay includes wages through termination, accumulated unused annual leave and other contractual amounts owed. See Labour and Employment Relations Act, section 57A.

SmoothPay's Samoa termination calculation pays the annual leave To date balance at the employee's applicable rate. Enter other amounts owed separately, including notice, retirement or redundancy payments and any contractual leave payout.

For example, a To date annual leave balance of 7.178 days, with eight hours per day at WST 20 per hour, pays WST 1,148.48: 7.178 × 8 × 20. With WST 1,600 ordinary wages, total earnings are WST 2,748.48 before deductions.

Unused sick leave is not automatically paid on termination. The final-pay totals appear in Summary and on the payslip, with tax, SNPF and configured deductions calculated as part of the pay. Follow Processing Leave and Terminations for the procedure and corrections.

A code's description identifies it to users. Its Classification, calculation method, contribution settings and other controls determine its payroll treatment. Review the original code's information when a code is protected.

See Creating Work codes.

Samoa annual and sick leave default to annual accrual in Days. See Configuring leave settings for the common leave-code controls.

The following classifications are available in the Samoa configuration. The descriptions explain their intended product use; apply Samoa's tax and contribution requirements to the actual payment.

Include in SNPF calculations controls the allowance's contribution treatment. Use Creating Allowance codes for code setup and calculation methods.

The Samoa-specific ACC, Samoa Life Assurance Corporation and seven NPF classifications are explained in their sections above. The agency menu also includes:

The company's bank determines which BSB identifiers to use for employees' bank accounts. Use the appropriate column in the table below when entering the employee's banking details.

Samoa's bank-file options include ANZ Diskpay, ANZ Transactive, BSP QuickPay, Westpac Quickpay and Other XLSX. The company format is selected in the Settings screen, Bank tab; employee accounts are recorded in the Staff screen, Bank tab.

Select the column for the company's bank, then use the row for the employee's bank. Enter all six digits, including the leading zero.

For example, an employee with an ANZ account uses 090000 when the company banks with BSP, or 010000 when the company banks with ANZ.

The BSB is followed by the account number, which can contain up to eight digits. SmoothPay inserts the separating dash automatically. There is no need to add leading zeros to the account-number portion.

For employee account entry and splitting pay across accounts, use Bank tab (staff screen).

Use Direct credit report & Bank file for the common steps and regenerating an output. Bank service information is available in ANZ's file-format guides and BSP Samoa QuickPay.

Bring across the employee's tax ID, SNPF member number, contribution details, leave records, and continuing SLAC, SNPF loan or voluntary contribution arrangements. The SNPF classifications and Particulars requirements above apply to those continuing deductions.

Historical earnings, tax, employee and employer contributions, and deductions need their reporting dates so SmoothPay can produce the relevant monthly P4, annual P6 and SNPF schedules. Use History tab and Available import options for recording or importing that history.

Opening annual and sick leave balances use the days method. SmoothPay calculates the To date balance and values annual leave liability from it. Follow How leave balances work and Adjusting Leave balances for the opening-balance procedure.

The 2025 employment regulations require a written or electronic wageslip for each pay period, with the employee and pay-period details, time and rates, gross pay, allowances, deductions and net pay. Employment records also cover attendance, leave, employment dates and contribution identifiers. See Labour and Employment Relations Regulations 2025.

Use Payslip production to configure and deliver payslips. Retain the payroll records, generated returns and evidence of submission and payment. Revenue requires tax records to be retained for seven years after the relevant tax period; see Revenue's record-keeping requirements.