Medium to large businesses have had to use Single Touch Payroll (STP) since July 2018. As of the 1 July 2019, all Australian micro and small businesses (1-20 employees) must be using an STP software to do their payroll. For those who don’t know what STP reporting is, every time you run payroll, you now need to send through all of your data to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). You do this by using payroll software that can lodge your STP for you. All the necessary information will be sent to the ATO through the program. Learn more about STP reporting and why it was introduced in our overview. In this post, we’re going to cover what small business owners need to know about STP and how you can avoid being caught out.
Employers must use STP-enabled software
All employers in Australia must be using cloud payroll software that works with STP. There isn’t really a way around this. If you’re currently using an online payroll software, check to see if can do STP. If you’re not currently using one, there are a number of different payroll programs for all business sizes and business types. Consider our small business factors when choosing a payroll provider.
STP makes running a business easier
With all of your information sent to the ATO in real-time, you don’t need to do the following things anymore:
- You don’t need to provide end-of-financial-year (EOFY) payment summaries to employees. Your employee will be able to find their year-to-date tax and super information via the ATO’s online services. This is where they’ll get their information to lodge their income tax return. Employee pay data comes from your STP reports and updates with every report made through STP software like Payroller. However, you’ll still need to let the ATO know when you’ve completed STP reporting for the year. Learn how to finalise your STP data at the end of the financial year in Payroller with our simple user guide.
- You don’t need a payment summary annual report. Annual payment summaries are reported and calculated through STP software.
We suggest talking to your accountant or bookkeeper further if you need additional information on this.