Many busy owners and managers of medium sized businesses have missed this important change to the way you MUST communicate with the ATO.
Single Touch Payroll is the next step in ATO payroll reporting. The way you report your employees’ payroll information to the ATO will change. From 1 July 2018 all employers with 20 or more employees will need to report payments such as salaries and wages, pay as you go (PAYG) withholding and super information to the ATO at the same time you pay your employees.
If you are a business with 19 or less employees then you will need to be ready by 1 July 2019, however you can choose to start earlier.
The reported information will be used by ATO to pre-fill business activity statements and remove the need for Payroll Summary Annual Reports. Additionally, the employers will no longer need to provide payment summaries to employees for certain payments reported through STP, as that information will be automatically provided by the ATO via MyGov.
Your existing payroll software (such as accounting software) will need to be updated to offer Single Touch Payroll reporting. Most payroll packages are still working with the ATO on publishing the required changes so please keep an eye out on your provider notifications in case you need to install the required updates to remain compliant.
How will this impact your business
- There will be no change to your payroll cycle. This will continue as per normal
- From 1 July each time you pay your employees you will also need to report your employees’ payroll and super information
- PAYG and superannuation payment dates will not change although you will be able to pay them earlier
- Payment summaries in most instances will become redundant and you may no longer need to provide them to employees as all information will be available on MyGov. This will be up to date information that employees will be able to view at any time via MyGov.
- ATO have also committed to having Tax file number declaration, Super standard choice form and Withholding declaration online, you will be able to provide to your employees as a link rather than printing out manual forms. This may not be available right from the start though
How can we help your business with the new changes?
Any change in business can be stressful so we can help remove that stress by:
- Helping you understand if your business will be impacted by these changes
- Showing you how to perform the required count and what employees to include who to exclude (eg. Count your regular employees but exclude casual employees who did not work in March, independent contractors, labour hire, company directors)
- Helping you choose the right payroll solution in case you don’t have one
- Advising on what information to report on to reduce the need for additional reporting at the end of the year
- Training your staff and implementing best practice payroll process to ensure error free processing and reporting
- Reporting your payroll information STP to the ATO on your behalf