All employers in Australia will be required to report wage information under Single Touch Payroll (STP) rules, commencing 1 July 2019. STP previously only applied to larger employers of 20 or more, but this has now been expanded to all employers and includes owner’s wages. Sole traders with no employees would not be required to report.

STP requires payroll information to be sent to the ATO electronically each time a payroll is run. This may be weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on your payroll cycle. If you use an accounting system to process your wages such as Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, etc., you should check that your accounting system is STP compliant. The most recent version of your software will be capable of reporting for STP.

If you aren’t currently using an accounting software to process your wages i.e. you use excel or a wages book, you will need to start using an accounting software that is STP compliant to process your payroll and report to the ATO. For businesses with 1-4 employees, there are low-cost and no-cost options.

With constant wage information (including super information) being reported to the ATO, they will have unprecedented access to data for compliance and data matching. The ATO will use the information to ensure that businesses are paying their super on time and will chase PAYGW debts quicker.

The ATO will allow a gradual phase-in of the new rules up until 30 September 2019. Silver & Young can assist with reviewing or establishing your payroll system for you. We can also assist you to ensure that you are STP compliant. Further information can be found here.