8th April, 2019
Some payroll vendors received an STP deferral in 2018, but those deferrals expire soon. Now’s your last chance to make sure you and your vendor is up to speed.
Most business owners will assume that they’re payroll vendor is compliant with all government regulation, but that’s not necessarily the case when it comes to Single Touch Payroll (STP).
Introduced last year, STP represents a significant shift in the way employee pay data is reported to the ATO. And those who aren’t already on board will soon be faced with some very pointed questions from the tax office.
STP is the new way employers are expected to report employee tax (PAYG withholding) and super information to the ATO.
Rather than complete payment summaries at the end of each financial year, STP is reported with each pay run. This alleviates the annual payroll crunch and allows employees to automatically gain access to all their pay data through the myGov portal.
STP became mandatory for all employers with 20 or more employees at of 1 July 2018, and from 1 July 2019 it will be mandatory for all employers with less than 20 employees.
While STP-compliance was mandated last year, some businesses were granted a 12-month deferral to get their systems and processes up to scratch.
This grace period means there may be some payroll vendors that remain non-compliant, and this could spell trouble for those businesses working with them.
Any operators remaining non-compliant as of 1 July this year may find themselves coming under scrutiny with the ATO, regardless of whether or not they were aware of their vendor’s compliance status.
If you’re managing a business that uses the services of a payroll vendor, the first thing you should do is contact them to ascertain their compliance status and to find out what steps you need to undertake to get set up on STP if this has not yet been done.
Chances are, if your operation is STP-compliant, you’ll know about it. If you’re not sure, then you’re at risk.
If your payroll vendor isn’t yet compliant, or can’t provide you with a definitive answer, then there’s every chance they (and, by extension, you) won’t be compliant come 1 July this year.
Should your discussions with your payroll vendor reveal that you’re exposed as non-compliant, don’t panic.
The simplest thing to do is consider switching to an STP-compliant vendor today.
Not only will you protect yourself against potential scrutiny from the ATO, you’ll be improving the efficiency and transparency of your payroll systems and processes.
Be ready for STP with MYOB. For decades, MYOB has been a leader in Australian compliance. We’ve been through our share of ATO changes from SBR to Superstream. In the process we’ve helped our clients transition with intelligent solutions.
STP has been no different. Since its inception, MYOB has been working directly with the ATO to ensure that all our software is ready for STP.
For larger companies (from 500 to 10,000+ employees), MYOB PayGlobal is ready and compliant with Single Touch Payroll.