Including Advanced Tax-Related Merge Fields in Word and Excel Templates

When creating a template for Word or Excel, you can include custom merge fields that are based on tax information from Xero Tax.

Notes:

• The notice of assessment fields are only generated when there is an Accepted/Agreed NOA in Xero Tax. Refer also to the Xero Help article Enter notice of assessment.
  
  
• The Tax Merge Fields are used in the FYI pre-configured processes for Tax Assessments processes which are triggered by Tax Returns from Xero Tax (refer to Xero Tax Return AutoFile (Australia Only)). If these Tax Merge Fields are used in any other processes (such as Custom Processes) or if a template with the Tax Merge Fields is used when creating a new email, they will retrieve the data from the most recent Tax Return or Assessment.
  
  
• The Tax Merge Fields only work after lodgement. They cannot be used in a pre-lodgement email or document to inform clients what you estimate their tax position would be. There is no way FYI can retrieve the details unless the tax is lodged and accepted, and the only way to add the pre-lodgement estimate is to manually insert the figure.
  
  
• Tax Merge Fields are not available for Activity Statements.
  
  
• Xero Practice Manager Custom Merge Fields will only retrieve data from the Client, and not the Job.

Advanced Tax-Related Merge Fields in Templates

Word Templates

The merge field is entered by typing it directly into the Word template using the Word Insert Field function, including the underscores. For example, «Tax_ITR_2024_Income».

Refer to Including Merge Fields in Word Templates and Stationery.

Excel Templates

Merge Fields are added to Excel templates via Excel Name fields. Refer to Including Merge Names in Excel Templates.

Understanding Advanced Tax-Related Merge Fields

Merge Field Structure

The structure of the merge field is as follows:

    «Tax_'TaxType'_'Year'_'Field'»

The following are the values that can be used for 'TaxType', 'Year' and 'Field' which are entered to make up the complete custom merge field.

The following are examples of how you can include these Merge Fields in an email template.

• Your 2024 tax from {{ Tax_SMSF_2024_PeriodFrom }} to {{ Tax_SMSF_2024_PeriodTo }} is estimated to be {{ Tax_SMSF_2024_EstimatedPayableRefundable }}
  
  
• Your 2024 income tax return from {{ Tax_ITR_2024_PeriodFrom }} to {{ Tax_ITR_2024_PeriodTo }} was lodged with the ATO on {{ Tax_ITR_2024_ Lodgement }}

Defaults for Year and Tax Type

When Tax Merge Fields are used in a document, you can customise the Merge Field to different degrees of specificity with the Type and Year. For example:

{{ Tax_Income }}
{{ Tax_ITR_Income }}
{{ Tax_ITR_2024_Income }}

If the year or entity type parameters are not included in the Merge Field, they will default as follows:

• Year - whatever is available for the most recent dataset of the relevant client
  
  
• Entity Type - defaults to one of the following, as relevant for the client
   
  ITR (Individual Tax Return)
  CTR (Company Tax Return)
  TRT (Trust Return)
  PTR (Partnership Return)
  SMSF (SMSF)

To add the Tax Merge fields so that defaults are applied, add them from the Advanced Tax section in the template and then delete parts of the field not required.

For example, instead of the full Merge Field of {{ Tax_ITR_2024_Income }}, editing the Merge Field to be {{ Tax_ITR_Income }} will default the year.

These defaults allow practices to avoid maintaining multiple versions of the same template. It also allows users to manually create emails that include tax merge fields in the event that there is an issue in an automation that uses the same template.