Single touch payroll

Starting 1 July 2019, businesses with 19 or less employees will be required to adopt the single touch payroll (STP) system. This will change the way businesses report salary/wages, PAYG and superannuation information to the tax office. So, what is single touch payroll and how big is the change? We explain the main points.

What is it

Single Touch Payroll (STP) is a new way of reporting payroll to the ATO. The ATO will use single touch payroll reports as the sole record of salary/wages paid, taxes collected, and superannuation contributed.

Difference

Instead of finalising your payroll records at the end of the financial year by providing a payment summary for annual report and employee respectively, small businesses now will need to submit the information online after each pay day, using a specific format known as SBR (Standard Business Reporting).

What it means

You’ll be updating the ATO on a pay-by-pay basis
No need for annual report and employee payment summaries
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.

How

There are several payroll software packages that you may use to submit your reports to the ATO on your own. However, you’ll need to make sure the reports are ATO-compliant.

If you’re not ready to report your payroll requirement on your own, get in touch with our accounting team at Hejaz Financial Services, and we will guide you through the options. We offer great packages to maintain your STP requirement and save you the hustle and complications you may face. Our packages include: