Single Touch Payroll

Ok, first things first.  Do you employ more than 20 employees by headcount?  If you don’t then you don’t need to worry, as this is not mandatory for you.  If you do/you might/or you want to, read on…

On 1/4/18 you will need to do a headcount of your employees.  If its 20 or more then we must have STP in place as at 1/7/2018.  Smaller employers can volunteer to use STP and anyone can elect to enter earlier.

So what does it all mean?  Every time you run a payroll, you need to submit it to the ATO.  This will include gross wages, gross tax and Super (all year to date accruals).

The good news is, that Xero is going to ensure that it will be as easy as a click of a button.

The reason?  The ATO want greater visibility of all employers, enabling earlier activity to ensure the employer is paying their PAYGW and their Super.

What else does it mean? It will also mean that the employer will no longer be required to provide payment summaries to their employees.  The ATO will provide them.  For this reason, it is very likely that I will encourage all of my clients who have employees to adopt the STP as soon as possible, reducing a lot of work at the end of the year in issuing payment summaries.