Effective 1st July 2019 or before, it is an ATO requirement for all businesses with employees to report payroll and superannuation data electronically to the ATO after each payrun instead of only providing annual Payment Summary information (previous named Group Certificates) at the end of each year.
The ATO calls this Single Touch Payroll (STP)
A good clear explanation about STP
STP works by sending tax and super information from your payroll or accounting software to the ATO just after the payroll is processed in the accounting system.
Xero accounting software is great church bookkeeping software and has been processing STP since July 2018.
Under STP
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- The employer will process the employee payroll, pay employees as normal, and give them a payslip
- The STP-enabled payroll software (Xero) will send the ATO a report which includes information about salaries and wages, pay as you go (PAYG) withholding and superannuation
- Employers will be reporting superannuation liability information through STP for the first time. Super funds will also be reporting to the ATO. This is an important step toward making sure employees are paid their correct entitlements.
The benefits of regular STP reporting include:
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- Employees and past employees will have access to their earnings and employer reported superannuation contributions in their MyGov account
- STP replaces preparation, printing and delivering most annual payment summaries to current and past employees
- New employees or employees with tax file number declaration changes can now be reported with each lodgement
- Annual Payment summaries will now be called Income Statement
What happens now for employees:
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- If you haven’t already done so, sign up to myGov to be able to access your reported earnings. To set up myGov please follow this myGov link: https://my.gov.au/EnrolService/enrolService.htm?_flowId=mgv2-enrolment-mg-flow&_flowExecutionKey=e1s1
- Click onto this link for detailed instructions on how to create a MyGov account: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/online-help/create-mygov-account
- We will not be providing payment summaries. You will be able to access them in your myGov account.
- If you do not have access to a computer or an email address, you can contact the ATO and request a paper copy of your Income Statement be issued to you.
- Personal information is transmitted to the ATO as part of the STP process.
- Your Tax Agent will be able to access your Income Statement via the ATO to prepare your tax return. Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.
- See these instructions to access your “Income Statement” in your MyGov account.
Please also see the information about STP for employees on the ATO: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Bus/Single-Touch-Payroll—for-employees/
If you have any other questions please contact your employer, your tax accountant or the ATO for further information.
I hope you have found this helpful
Blessings
Jeanette Korporaal
© Benkorp Management Services Pty Ltd 2019