What is Single Touch Payroll (STP)?
What is Single Touch Payroll (STP)?
STP is an electronic method for providing the ATO with real time payroll data at the time employees are paid. STP allows the ATO to data match Wages, Withholding and Superannuation.
Who Will Be Affected?
Once you become a substantial employer (20 or more employees) you will need to continue reporting through STP even if your employee numbers drop to 19 or less – unless you apply for and are granted an exemption. If you are not a ‘substantial business’ on 1 April 2018 the STP rules will most likely affect you from 1 July 2019.
What Do I Need To Do?
If you are already registered with a cloud reporting solution, they will contact you to let you know when they will be ready.
If you don’t have a cloud solution please contact Holmans to discuss your options.
Download a printable version
You can download the information detailed on this page (‘What is Single Touch Payroll (STP)?’) as a printable PDF for future reference. Click here to access the PDF document.
What Will Not Change
- Your pay cycle does not need to change. You can continue to pay your employees weekly, fortnightly or monthly
- The dates for PAYG and contributions remain the same too. You can elect to pay these earlier if you want.
- If you are a small to medium withholder, you will continue to lodge an activity statement (BAS) as you do now.
There will also be some changes to how superannuation is reported to the ATO, but not to the way superannuation is paid.
Am I A Substantial Business?
Include employees who are:
- full-time, part-time and casual employees who were paid during March 2018
- Australian employees that are based overseas
- any employee absent or on leave (paid or unpaid) e.g. maternity or paternity leave
- seasonal employees (staff who are engaged short term).
If you are part of a wholly-owned group, the total number of employees in all member companies of ‘the group’ must be included. If uncertain please do not hesitate to contact us.
Do Not Include:
- any employees who ceased work before 1 April or casual employees who did not work in March
- independent contractors or staff provided by a third-party labour hire organisation
- company directors or office holders. However, when you start reporting through STP you will need to report their payment information.
- religious practitioners
Going forward you will no longer have to:
- Complete BAS fields W1 & W2
- Complete annual PAYG summaries from the 2018-2019 Financial Year
Need help and want to know more?
Call Holmans for assistance on (07) 5430 7600 or send us an email.
