Updated February 2019
Single Touch Payroll, or STP, is a compliance regulation that was announced by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on the 1st of July, 2018, requiring employers to send employee payroll information including salary, wages, PAYG withholding and superannuation to the ATO for each pay run.
Previously, payroll reporting was sent to the ATO monthly or quarterly.
After making this announcement, the ATO gave businesses with 19 or fewer employees 12 months to make this change.
In early February 2019 the final legislation was passed, mandating that all businesses must now move to Single Touch Payroll by July 1 2019.
What’s changing?
- You will need to report your employees’ Superannuation liability information through STP.
- You will no longer need to provide payment summaries to your employees for the payments you report and finalise through STP.
- Employees will be able to view their year-to-date payment information in ATO online services, accessible through myGov.
- 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 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.
For more information on the above please click here.
How to ‘get ready’ for Single Touch Payroll Before 1 July 2019
- Nominate a key point of contact for STP
You will need to allocate a key point of contact within your business who is authorised to lodge the STP reports and is responsible for understanding the new reporting requirements of STP.
- Review your payroll provider
In order to comply with STP regulations, you need to ensure that your chosen payroll solution offers STP reporting. Many payroll software providers have been busy updating their products.
We recommend contacting your payroll provider and double-checking whether their product is compliant with STP reporting obligations.
For businesses without a payroll provider, we recommend looking for a digital solution to reduce the chance of errors and decrease hours spent each week on paperwork now that reporting is due with each pay cycle.
- Review your reporting requirements
There are slight changes reporting requirements for STP.
For detailed information on this, you can read the employer reporting guidelines provided by the ATO here.
- Review your employment frameworks
This is also a good time to double-check the employment frameworks you use as a guideline to pay your staff their wages and entitlements, such as the Modern Awards.
- Keep up to date
For more detailed guidelines on STP reporting and the relevant obligations, we recommend visiting the ATO website or watch the video below.
Will Sidekicker support Single Touch Payroll?
Absolutely. Sidekicker implemented Single Touch Payroll when it was first rolled out.
If you hire staff through Sidekicker, we handle employment admin like screening, payroll, on costs and compliance, so our customers can focus time and resources on what matters more for their business.