As of 1st July 2019 Single Touch Payroll (STP) applies to all employers – prior to this point it was only relevant for businesses who employ 20 or more staff.
For those who are unfamiliar with STP, this is an initiative from the ATO to assist with transparency and integrating employee data in real time. Every time you make a payment to an employee, the super and tax information is sent directly from your accounting software to the ATO; employees are able to log on to the MyGov website (there is a process in order to link each service to their account) and see their information as it flows through, as opposed to waiting until year end.
Most current accounting software should easily adapt to this change with a couple of minor adjustments to the settings. For those not using such software, more significant changes may be required.
With the move to cloud based accounting systems, and the relative low cost of subscription based payment models, we recommend speaking to your accountant or bookkeeper and exploring the options available. When seeking finance, or managing the day to day running of your business, the instant overview from a well set up and maintained accounting system far outweighs the associated costs.
If you are unsure on how the Single Touch Payroll changes may impact your business, or you would like to know how to easily adapt, please contact one of the team at Flexible Capital and we will put you in touch with an expert in this area.
