Payroll preparation and reporting are changing. Are you ready?

If you haven’t done your employee headcount by April 1st, 2018, you’re an April Fool. It is the first step you must do to work out if you have to use Single Touch Payroll. If your business has 20 employees, the ATO is requiring you, your taxation professional or your 3rd party payroll service to follow the streamlined reporting of the new system.

Under the new Single Touch Payroll system, employers must report the following on or before payroll payday:

• employee payments such as salaries and wages
• pay as you go (PAYG) withholding
• super information.

Why is the ATO changing a system that works just fine?

The one government department which refuses to rest on its laurels, the ATO is implementing changes that integrate into other government services, reduce payroll paperwork whilst improving compliance and reduce End of Financial Year paperwork. More specifically, the ATO says:

• You may not need to provide payment summaries to your employees at the end of the financial year when you report through Single Touch Payroll.
• Your employees will be able to see their year-to-date tax and super information through myGov.
• In the future, Single Touch Payroll information will be used to prefill your activity statement.

What are your responsibilities?

What you need to do

• Talk to your payroll software provider to find out when your Single Touch Payroll-enabled software will be ready.
• Ask your tax professional or payroll service provider how to get ready.
• Review your current payroll processes to see if they can be updated.
• Start developing an implementation plan.

A decade of working with small businesses assures us that it is the development of an implementation plan that will cause businesses to stumble. Always getting caught up in the day-to-day operations trying to build and grow, means a simple planning task to be seen as not urgent and therefore not done on time.

As this is the ATO, it is the worst possible thing you could do. So let us make it easier for you, book an appointment or 2nd Opinion time with one of our specialists who will take the issue from your hands and ensure all the details are completed on time.  Appointment booking >

Are you a person who likes to read all the jargon for themselves?

The ATO Newsroom has the information broken down into understandable and easy-to-follow language. Access the Media Release to read all the fine print and details. You can even access the content in video format.