For many business owners, payroll and compliance can be a foreign, daunting or difficult function to manage.
Many also make the assumption that they are complying and put the onus on the employee to raise the issues and mistakes.
The importance of getting payroll right has never been so critical for businesses. We have recently witnessed high-profile brands being publicly scrutinized for wage non-compliance, resulting in massive fines, reputational risk and a loss of the public’s trust.
Our complex legislative obligations mean that understanding what your staff should be paid can be a challenging task. Honest mistakes can be made around calculating minimum wage rates, entitlements, annual leave and penalty rates – and can often be the difference between complying with Fair Work and putting your franchise at risk.
Single Touch Payroll (STP), a more regular and streamlined way of receiving payroll and superannuation data from employers, will be introduced by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) on 1 July 2018. In the world of payroll, this is a big deal. It represents one of the most significant changes by the ATO in many years and Australian businesses will need to ensure they are ready to meet the new obligations.
The roll out will happen in two stages. It will firstly become compulsory for ‘substantial employers’, which are businesses with 20 staff or more, from 1 July 2018, and those employing less than 20 staff from 1 July 2019.
In the first stage, the ATO requires every business employing 20 staff or more at the 31 March 2018 to be STP compliant. This includes each employee, not just full-time equivalents, as well as casual employees and those on leave. In short, you will meet your obligation by sending the ATO an electronic message at the time employees are paid. That transaction must contain all details of each employee’s gross, tax and net payments as well as superannuation, and lastly, details of new employees and terminations.
Employers currently report Pay As You Go (PAYG) withholdings via their Business Activity Statement (BAS) but under the new STP scheme, this information will be submitted to the ATO at each pay event, via your payroll software or payroll service provider. Once fully implemented, STP will negate the need for businesses to produce PAYG Payment Summaries for employees and will provide the ATO with a substantial real-time level of granularity on every payroll transaction across Australia.
After every “pay event” including the payment of salaries and wages, allowances, deductions and other payments, PAYG withholding and superannuation, STP reporting will take place.
With ePayroll, you don't need to worry, we are LIVE with STP and take care of all the backend!
Speak to one of our team members today!
ePayroll has been providing comprehensive and integrated online payroll solutions to businesses across Australia since 2002. Our state-of-the-art payroll software is widely used - from your local boutique café to a medium sized organisation with over 100 staff. Every business knows that a smarter and more dynamic payroll system can increase organisational efficiency, which leads to higher productivity and effectiveness. Our online payroll programs and applications allow businesses to optimise their daily operations by reducing risky errors whilst boosting compliance and accuracy.
As Australia’s trusted web payroll and employee management software providers, we guarantee that you will get the ultimate flexibility and efficiency to lift your business to greater heights.
ePayroll is a part of ReadyTech (ASX listed, RDY), the leading provider of people management software for employers, educators and facilitators of work transitions. Bringing together the best in payroll and HR admin, student management, employment services and behavioural science technology, we support the development and success of tomorrow’s workforce. As a whole, ReadyTech represents a new way to manage the complex human journey through study, work and career transitions.
