The Australian Taxation Office has asked employers with 20 or more employees to count staff numbers in the lead-up to Single Touch Payroll (STP) beginning on July 1.
ATO Assistant Commissioner John Shepherd says employers with close to 20 employees will need a headcount to determine whether they need to report through STP, noting that guidance on the ATO website includes who should and who should not be counted.
He says employers should count those who were on the payroll last Sunday (April 1).
“Do the headcount at a time that’s convenient for you – as long as you count those employees who were on your payroll on April 1,” he said. “If it totals 20 or more, you’ll need to get ready to report through STP from July 1.”
Mr Shepherd says employers don’t have to report the headcount results to the ATO, but should keep this information for their own records.
“The ATO is ready for the start of STP,” he said. “We strongly recommend you check in with your payroll-software provider if you haven’t already. They can advise you of the steps you should take to update your software, if you need to, and start STP reporting.”
STP is a reporting change that will allow employers to report tax and super information to the ATO from their own payroll software.