Summary of single touch payroll
Single touch payroll changes when and 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 online after each pay day.
Changes to when you report payroll
Small businesses used to finalise their payroll records at the end of the financial year and produce a Payment Summary Annual Report for the ATO and a Payment Summary (Group Certificate) for each employee.
With STP, the payment summary annual report and the employee payment summary will no longer be required
No more payment summary annual reports
Because you’ll be updating the ATO on a pay-by-pay basis, you won’t need to prepare a payment summary annual report anymore. You’ll just let the ATO know when you’ve made your last pay run of the financial year for your employees.
No more employee payment summaries, either
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.
Your employees will be able to see the information that would normally be on their payment summary by logging on to myGov.
Payment summaries will be a thing of the past. Employees can find their pay-to-date information online.
You’ll need to report payroll online
There’ll be no more paper forms for reporting your payroll activity to the ATO. You’ll need to submit the information online. Depending on how you do payroll now, you may need to change software or find a service provider who can produce compliant reports for you.
When is the single touch payroll deadline?
Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees have a confirmed deadline for switching to single touch payroll of 1 July 2019.
Businesses with more than 20 employees switched to single touch payroll on 1 July 2018.
If you don’t already use an accountant or bookkeeper to help you with payroll, this is a good time to start.
Find Out More
Find out more about Beck Partners , Who We Are and What We Do at our website and feel free to contact info@beckpartners.com.au if we can be of any assistance.