Payroll EOY Finalisation – Single Touch Payroll

Payroll End of Year Finalisation

Single Touch Payroll

Due 14 July

Employers – you have until 14 July to finalise your end of year payroll through Single Touch Payroll (STP). 

While this may sound like a simple, one step process through your software, you do need to undertake a number of checks at this time to ensure that the information you are lodging is correct. 

We’ve outlined these steps below for you.  If you need help finalising your payroll for the end of financial year, please feel free to book in a time to speak to us.

 

1

Check that all of your bank accounts are reconciled in your accounting software and the bank account balance agrees to the bank statement.

2

Check all of your payruns have been recorded, paid and filed with the ATO through Single Touch Payroll.

3

Check the wages payable account in your balance sheet and ensure that the balance is nil at the end of financial year (which indicates that all payruns have been physically paid).

4

Download the lodged Single Touch Payroll data from the ATO Business Portal to confirm the total gross wages and PAYG withholding.

5

Summarise and total the wages data lodged via your business activity statements (W1 Wages and W2 PAYG withholding).

6

Download the Single Touch Payroll reports from your accounting software and compare the total wages and PAYG withholding to the amounts calculated in steps 4 and 5 above.  The wages and PAYG withholding calculated in steps 4 and 5 should agree to the total wages and PAYG withholding shown in the Single Touch Payroll report from your accounting software.

7

Once you are happy that the data in the Single Touch Payroll report is correct, you can finalise the data in your accounting software and lodge with the ATO via Single Touch Payroll.  The reports are required to be finalised by 14 July.

8

We recommend that once the payroll data has been finalised through Single Touch Payroll, you notify your employees.  Your employees no longer receive individual printed payment summaries.  Once you have finalised the payroll through Single Touch Payroll, your employees can access the finalised data through their myGov accounts or via their tax agent.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article is general in nature and is not a substitute for professional advice.  Accordingly, neither TJN Accountants nor any member or employee of TJN Accountants accepts any responsibility for any loss, however caused, as a result of reliance on this general information.  We recommend that our formal advice be sought before acting in any of the areas.  The article is issued as a helpful guide to clients and for their private information.  Therefore, it should be regarded as confidential and not be made available to any person without our consent,

Single Touch Payroll

From 1 July 2019, all employers will need to be reporting to the ATO using Single Touch Payroll. 

 

Employers will need to report, salary, wages, PAYG withholding and superannuation to the ATO at the time you pay your employees.

 

The Single Touch Payroll reporting requirements will work hand-in-hand with the new provisions that will deny a deduction to employers for failing to report and pay PAYG withholding for their employee payments (see our separate article here).

 

What does this mean for my business?

 

If you employ staff, you will need to make sure you have systems in place to enable you to report your payroll information to the ATO every pay period.  Generally, if you are using up-to-date accounting software, it should be able to comply with the STP requirements without too much additional effort.  However, you should check this with your software provider.

 

How can we help?

 

We are conducting payroll health checks for businesses with employees.  Please contact us today on (07) 56656469 if you would like us to review your payroll systems to ensure they will be compliant at 1 July 2019.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article is general in nature and is not a substitute for professional advice.  Accordingly, neither TJN Accountants nor any member or employee of TJN Accountants accepts any responsibility for any loss, however caused, as a result of reliance on this general information.  We recommend that our formal advice be sought before acting in any of the areas.  The article is issued as a helpful guide to clients and for their private information.  Therefore it should be regarded as confidential and not be made available to any person without our consent,

Single Touch Payroll

From 1 July 2018, employers with more than 20 employees will need to start reporting to the ATO using Single Touch Payroll.  Employers will need to report, salary, wages, PAYG withholding and superannuation to the ATO at the time you pay your employees.

On 1 April 2018 employers need to take a headcount of your employees.  You do not need to advise the ATO of the number of employees as at 1 April 2018, this is just a method of determining whether your business will be required to report under Single Touch Payroll Reporting.  If you have more than 20 employees as at 1 April 2018, you will be required to use Single Touch Payroll Reporting from 1 July 2018.  Once you start reporting using Single Touch Payroll Reporting, you will continue to report even if your employee numbers drop below 20.  Most software systems should be capable of enabling you to report the pay information to the ATO using Single Touch Payroll.

 

What you need to do

  • If you have more than 20 employees as at 1 April 2018, check the ability of your software to report your pay information to the ATO every pay period.  Review your available options if your current software does not support Single Touch Payroll Reporting.

 

Available resources

The ATO have released resources for employers and are currently running free webinars to assist employers with their compliance:

Please do not hesitate to contact us on (07) 56656469 if you would like assistance with understanding your obligations under Single Touch Payroll Reporting.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article is general in nature and is not a substitute for professional advice.  Accordingly, neither TJN Accountants nor any member or employee of TJN Accountants accepts any responsibility for any loss, however caused, as a result of reliance on this general information.  We recommend that our formal advice be sought before acting in any of the areas.  The article is issued as a helpful guide to clients and for their private information.  Therefore it should be regarded as confidential and not be made available to any person without our consent,