28 March 2019
Single Touch Payroll
From 1 July 2019 the Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting process will become a requirement for all employers.
Single Touch Payroll reports your employees’ wages, PAYG withholding and super information to the ATO each time you process payroll and pay your staff. The information is sent to the ATO electronically from your accounting or payroll software.
Reporting through STP will mean that your payroll information is passed to the ATO throughout the year, and will ultimately remove the need to provide PAYG payment summaries or group certificates to your staff at the end of each financial year.
Previously, only businesses with 20 or more employees were required to report via STP, but with the roll out to all employers from 1 July 2019 the ATO has guaranteed that the process will be gradual and will allow for small employers to start reporting any time between 1 July and 30 September 2019.
They have also stated that there will be no penalties for mistakes, missed or late reports for the first year of reporting.
For micro employers, those with 1-4 employees, there will be the option to report your payroll quarterly for the first two years through your tax agent.
Only some accounting programs will be STP compliant. Those of you who are using Xero, MYOB Essentials or the latest version of MYOB AccountRight for your accounting software are already in an STP compliant program. We will be contacting employers who are not using any of these programs yet to discuss upgrading, or moving accounting programs to become STP compliant.
We will be in contact with all our clients who are employers to explain the process of moving to STP reporting, what you are required to do and how we will work this into your current accounting and bookkeeping process.
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