Updated: Nov 27, 2019
All employers by now should know what STP, or Single Touch Payroll is. As a summary, this is a fundamental change in the way that payroll is reported to ATO. The employer still processes wages, issues a payslip, and does a funds transfer. The added step is the reporting of this pay event to ATO.
This is not an option in your payroll process - this is an employer obligation! For employers with more than 20 employees it was compulsory from July 1st 2018. For all other employees it was compulsory from the 1st of July this year! Don't panic, you have until September 30th 2019, to be compliant - We know less than a week!
Alarmingly, the ATO estimated that 3 out of every 5 employers will not be STP compliant by September 30th 2019! There are penalties for non-compliance, and ATO have commenced following up with non compliant employers.
As an employer STP reporting requires you to report to the ATO the following information at the time of your payroll run:
- Gross salary or wage
- Amount of PAYG withholding
- As a minimum, the liability for superannuation guarantee (SG) or ordinary times earnings.
Each payroll cycle, STP-enabled electronic payroll software automatically sends to the ATO:
1. An employer-level report — which contains the total gross salaries and wages amount and total PAYG withholding amount across all employees for that pay period
2. An employee-level report — which contains the year-to-date (YTD) amounts of gross salary or wage, PAYG withholding and liability for SG per individual employee.
So what to do? At this late stage - Contact us and we can have a chat about what you need to do to ensure you are compliant.
Please be assured we are here to support you every step of the way towards success in your business!
Pru Cameron – Principal and BAS Agent
Pru is the director and founder of Benchmark Business Works. With many years experience and numerous qualifications, you know your business is in safe hands. A personal member of professional bookkeepers association the Australian Bookkeepers Network, Pru is also a registered BAS agent, a commerce graduate of Curtin University, and has completed a Certificate IV in Financial Services (Bookkeeping).
