Single Touch Payroll (STP).

If you use payroll software, it may need to be updated to enable STP reporting.

• Employers with 20 or more employees should be reporting to the ATO through STP unless you have been granted a deferral.
• Employers with 19 or less employees have the option to report through STP now. Legislation is currently before parliament to extend STP to all employers from 1 July 2019.

When you use STP-enabled software you will send  tax and super information  to the ATO each time you pay your employees. You do not need to change anything else.  Your pay cycle does not need to change. You can continue to pay your employees weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

The information you report will include your employees’ salaries and wages, allowances, deductions (for example, workplace giving) and other payments, pay as you go (PAYG) withholding and superannuation information.

What does STP mean for you

• You need to report your employees’ tax and super information to the ATO on or before each pay day. You will send this information from your STP-enabled payroll software.
• You will no longer need to provide payment summaries to your employees for the payments you report and finalise through STP. Payments not reported through STP, such as Employee share scheme (ESS), will still need to be reported on a payment summary.
• You will no longer need to provide the ATO with a payment summary annual report (PSAR) at the end of the financial year for the payments you report through STP.
• Employees will be able to view their year-to-date payment information in ATO online services, which they will access through their myGov account. Your employees can also request a copy of this information from the ATO.
• You will need to do a finalisation declaration at the end of the financial year. The information you report through STP will not be tax-ready for your employees or their registered tax agent until you make this declaration.
• You will report your employees’ super liability information for the first time through STP. The liability is the amount that you would normally provide to your employees on their payslip. Super funds will then report to the ATO once you have paid the super amount to your employees’ chosen or default fund.

What do you need to do?

If you are an employer, as a valued customer of DC Advisory Group we will contact you closer to the implementation date to see if you are STP ready.  We will be offering group and individual training sessions as well as software health checks to make sure you are fully compliant with STP by the due date and reporting the correct information.  The change is here and you need to be ready.  We are here to help.

If you have any queries regarding STP please do not hesitate to contact our office.

The information provided  in this BLOG is of a general nature only and has been provided without considering your objectives, financial situation or needs. Because of this you should consider whether the information is appropriate considering your objectives, financial situation and needs.