THE Australian Taxation Office is reminding employers with 20 or more employees to get ready for the start of Single Touch Payroll (STP) on July 1, 2018.
The next step for employers is to count the employees who are on their payroll as of April 1 to determine if they need to report through STP this year.
Assistant Commissioner, John Shepherd, said if you have close to 20, you will need to do a headcount of your employees.
There is guidance on the ATO website to help – including who you should and shouldn’t include in the count.
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“While the headcount date is 1 April, we don’t expect you to interrupt your long weekend plans,” Mr Shepherd said.
“Do the headcount at a time that’s convenient for you – as long as you count those employees who were on your payroll on 1 April. If it totals 20 or more, you’ll need to get ready to report through STP from 1 July.”
Mr Shepherd also stressed that employers don’t have to report the headcount information to the ATO.
“The headcount is for you to determine whether you need to start reporting this year or not. We don’t need you to send us that information, but you should keep a copy for your own records,” he said.
“The ATO is ready for the start of STP. We strongly recommend you check in with your payroll software provider if you haven’t already.
“They can advise you of the steps you should take to update your software if you need to, and start STP reporting.”
Single Touch Payroll is a reporting change that will allow employers to report tax and super information to the ATO from their own payroll software.
Employers can visit www.ato.gov.au/stp for detailed information about STP, including a fact sheet, checklist and how to do the headcount.
- Copy supplied by the Australian Taxation Office.
