Employees could be worse off in 2011/12 than they were two years ago, despite Government’s payroll tax rollback.Payroll tax for most jobs will go down from 16 percent to 14 percent, a reduction of two percentage points or 12.5 percent.But employers could benefit more than employees in the coming financial year, which begins April 1, as the reduction for employees is by only half a percentage point, compared to one and a half percentage points for employers.That means that of the $50 million Premier Paula Cox says she is giving back to taxpayers, employees could get only a quarter ($12.5 million), compared to three-quarters for employers ($37.5 million).For example, if you earn $60,000 a year and your employer makes you pay the new maximum contribution for payroll tax of 5.25 percent (it was previously 5.75 percent), you will now pay $3,150 a year (compared to $3,450 last year).If you get paid weekly, that equates to about $60.50, as opposed to $66.34 previously. The decrease is about 8.5 percent or a saving of $300 annually.In the financial year 2009/10, you would have only had to pay 4.75 percent or $2,850 a year.In 2011/12, your employer, for the standard rate of payroll tax, will pay 8.75 percent of the total (previously 10.25 percent) or $5,250 (compared to $6,150 last year).That’s a decrease of about 14.5 percent or a saving of $900 annually.In 2009/10, they’d have had to pay $5,550, so will be better off in 2011/12.Your employer could choose to deduct less from you than 5.25 percent and pay more themselves, meaning you could have more dollars in your pay packet than two years ago.Companies which contribute the entire payroll tax contribution for their employees, such as many exempt firms, are looking at tax relief in 2011/12 of 12.5 percent.In the case of the $60,000-a-year employee, the company would pay $8,400 a year, compared to $9,600 previously.Bermuda Public Services Union president Armell Thomas said last night that even though employees could still have to pay more in payroll tax than two years ago, the rollback in the 2011/12 Budget was welcome.“A lot of the members are quite happy that they are getting a few dollars back in their pockets,” he said. “It’s a big plus to roll that back.“Some companies are saving 40 grand, 30 grand. That’s a pay cheque, at least for a temporary worker or something. It’s going to help.”Finance Minister Ms Cox told MPs last week: “The payroll tax reductions I have outlined will return approximately $50 million of spending power to taxpayers in 2011/12.”She said the fillip was aimed at stemming job losses, stimulating new employment and helping businesses and workers through the final stages of the recession.Peter Everson, from Bermuda Chamber of Commerce’s economics division, questioned whether the money gained by companies from the tax break would really create new jobs.“This is only reversing what happened last year so their profits went down but they obviously tried to save money where they could.“Now it’s come back they are not necessarily going to be spending all of it. Some of it will be used to repair profit margins; some [firms] are unfortunately no longer trading; and some of the jobs were actually pushed overseas and are highly unlikely to be pushed back.”He said it wasn’t certain that all the money employers got back would be fed into the economy.l Useful websites: www.gov.uk, www.bermudacommerce.com, www.bpsu.bm