Single touch payroll (STP) is a change in the way of how small businesses report payroll activity to the Australian Tax Office (ATO). Businesses used to report this information to the ATO once a year. Now, they need to send a report after each pay cycle. And those reports must be submitted digitally, using Standard business reporting SBR platform

Changes to when you report payroll

Till 30^th July 2018 All businesses were used to finalise their payroll records at the end of the financial year and produce:

·      a payment summary annual report for the ATO, stating how much the business had paid in salary or wages and PAYG withheld.

·      a payment summary for each employee, stating what each employee received in wages or salary, the payroll taxes collected from their pay, and some superannuation contributions made on their behalf.

From 1^st July 2018, Businesses with 20 or more employees are required to report salary and wages using Single touch payroll. From 1^st July 2019, Legislation to extend Single Touch Payroll to include employers with 19 or fewer employees is currently before parliament.

Payment summary annual reports

 PSAR will become a thing of the past as businesses won’t be required to prepare them.  Businesses will be updating the payroll information on a pay-by-pay basis, so they won’t need to prepare a payment summary annual report anymore. Just let the ATO know when the  last pay run of the financial year has occurred for your employees and they are done

Payment summaries won’t need to be sent to employees anymore, so employers won’t be required to produce them. The ATO will use single touch payroll reports as the sole record of salary/wages paid, taxes collected, and superannuation contributed.

Employees will be able to access the information that would normally be on their payment summary by logging on to myGov.

Are you ready for STP?

To be ready for the switch, you just need to make sure you can submit compliant reports every payday.

If you use cloud-based software like Xero or Quickbooks online it can handle the job. You just have to make sure that it is set up properly

If you use desktop payroll software, discuss with the software provider on what options they have available for your version of the software

If you use spreadsheets or pen and paper, you can use low-cost STP software provider. ATO has published a list of low-cost STP solutions. You don’t need to maintain accounting software to use them

We can answer your questions about single touch payroll. Book an appointment now.

General Advice Warning

The information contained on this web site is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice.

Taxation, legal and other matters referred to on this website are of a general nature only and are based on our interpretation of laws existing at the time and should not be relied upon in place of appropriate professional advice.