Well, it has happened, you can no longer defer your business reporting using Single Touch Payroll (STP). July 1, 2019 has come and gone.

The tax office now requires you to use STP for all of your payroll and superannuation reporting, which could mean that you need to report to the tax office as early as this week.

So far, you should have been in contact with your Accountant (the marvelous people at Think Accountants) to discuss whether or not you are compliant with the new reporting system.

Your software provider – if it is MYOB, Quickbooks or Xero should be already set up to ensure that you meet your reporting requirements with the tax office.

They are as follows:

• Provide an opening year-to-date balance for all employees (active, inactive and terminated) in an update event.
• Report year-to-date balances for all employees (active, inactive and terminated) in your first pay event.
• Report year-to-date amounts for employees through a STP pay event and year-to-date amounts for inactive and terminated employees in a later update event which must be lodged by 14 July or the deferred due date.
• Report the current year-to-date balances for the employees included in your first pay event. Give payment summaries to terminated and inactive employees and lodge a PAYG payment summary annual report to cover the payments you made before your first STP pay event.
• Start your STP reporting with zero year-to-date balances and give payment summaries to all of your employees (current, inactive and terminated). Lodge a PAYG payment summary annual report for payments you made before your first STP pay event.

If you are using the above listed software, the program will do all of this for you.

Contact Paul and his team to find out how.

If you are not using this software, you will need to ensure that you report properly to the tax office to avoid a fine and ensure that you are compliant with the new payment standards.

This is a large and often confusing change for business, which has caused a lot of consternation in the business world.

We are here to help!

Take the time to call us today with any questions or problems and we will help you to work through this payroll maze, until it becomes second nature.

There have been many questions such as – ‘Do I now send Group Certificates directly to the tax office and not to the employee?’

The answer here is that your system will/should send the information automatically to the tax office and you should also provide a group certificate to your employees for their information and so they can claim their tax returns.

You do not have to change your pay cycle – payroll will run as normal, reporting to the tax office should happen automatically when you run payroll.

You will receive confirmation from the ATO that they have received your payroll information – if you do not receive this within 2 business days, contact Think Accountants to discuss where you might have gone wrong.

Businesses with less than 10 employees can apply to defer their STP until 30 September, 2019, however the earlier you get the hang of this new reporting regime, the better your business will be.

Superannuation funds are now more under the microscope from the ATO. You will be reporting your superannuation liability in your payroll details and the superannuation fund will confirm with the tax office that they have received payment.

While this seems like an onerous, difficult and stressful transition it doesn’t have to be!

If you make mistakes in your report, you can fix it in your following report without being penalized.

There is wiggle room and room for you to learn the systems, but it is important that you get onto these changes as a matter of priority.

There will be issues, hiccups and learning curves – for both business and the ATO that is why we are here to help.

Call Think Accountants today with any questions and take the time to chat with Paul and his team to ensure that you are fully compliant with tax office reporting requirements and that you feel comfortable running your payroll and reporting as usual.