Attention all Employers – Single Touch Payroll is Coming

As we all know 1 April 2018 is Easter Sunday and the end of daylight savings for this year, however what you might not know is that it’s also ‘employee headcount day’ for the new Single Touch Payroll (STP) initiative being introduced by the Government.

STP will begin on 1 July 2018 for employers with 20 or more employees and on 1 July 2019 for all other employers (subject to legislation being passed in parliament). It involves employers electronically reporting all wage details, PAYG withholding and super entitlements to the ATO every time you pay your employees. Unfortunately, you can’t choose not to implement STP, it will be mandatory from the above dates.

‘Employee headcount day’ requires each employer to count how many employees they have working for them on 1 April 2018 to determine if STP starts this year or next year. If you are part of a company group, the employee threshold applies to the group not each entity.

Included in this headcount are the following employees:

• Full-time employees
• Part-time employees
• Casual employees who are on the payroll on 1 April 2018 and worked anytime during March 2018
• Employees based overseas
• Any employees absent or on leave (paid or unpaid)
• Seasonal employees

Once you have completed the headcount and if you have determined you have 20 or more employees, the next step is to look at your payroll software. Is it going to be STP compliant by 1 July 2018? This is where we can help you now. We can review your software, determine if it will be STP compliant and then help you to transition into using STP.

At this stage Xero, MYOB Essentials and Quickbooks Online are advertising they will be compliant. If you are using MYOB Accounting or MYOB AccountRight, you will need to upgrade to MYOB AccountRight version 2018.1. If your software is not going to be STP compliant by 1 July 2018 or you currently do your payroll manually please contact us immediately to discuss your options.

We know the increasing level of payroll requirements can be a burden to our small business clients and we want to help you as much as possible. We can therefore offer you a full payroll service to take care of your weekly, fortnightly, or monthly payroll needs using STP compliant software. This service is beneficial for business owners as it can help to free up time for you to focus more on growing your business. Please contact us for more details and a competitive quote.