End-of-year Single Touch Payroll changes for employers

Single Touch Payroll (STP) will change how employers report their employee's end-of-year information to both employees and the ATO. The first year of STP for employers with 20 or more employees will soon come to an end at the completion of this financial year.

Employers that are reporting through STP will no longer need to:

• Provide payment summaries to their employees for amounts reported and finalised through STP, as an income statement will get sent to employees' ATO online services account (accessed through myGov) instead.
• Lodge a PAYG payment summary annual report to the ATO for information that is reported and finalised through STP, as long as the finalisation declaration is completed by the due date.

Employers who started reporting through STP in the 2018-19 financial year will have until 31 July 2019 to make the finalisation declaration through their STP-enabled solution. The declaration states that you have completed your reporting for the financial year. Employers should ensure that all STP information is true and correct before making their finalisation declaration.

To get ready for end-of-year reporting, further things for employers to consider include:

• The sooner that employees' information is finalised, the sooner they will be able to lodge their tax returns.
• Amendments should be made as soon as possible if any corrections need to be made to information after finalisation. This can be done by submitting an update event in your STP-enabled solution.

Employee payment summaries and PAYG payment summary annual reports are still required for all payments that are not reported and finalised through STP, due 14 July 2019 and 14 August 2019 respectively. Where further assistance is needed, registered tax agents can assist employers with their end-of-year STP reporting.