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Prepare for finalising 2022 Single Touch Payroll

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It’s time to make a finalisation declaration for Single Touch Payroll (STP).  As a reminder, there is no longer any need to issue payment summaries to employees you have reported through STP.

STP is a government initiative designed to reduce employers’ reporting burdens to government agencies and provide a more streamlined process. However, there are still requirements that need to be met and our team are happy to help you complete all necessary steps to finalise your STP.

Read on to learn more about Single Touch Payroll requirements.

Employers must complete the finalisation declaration by 14 July for employees. Employers with both employees and closely held payees have until 30 September 2022 to make the declaration. (Closely held payees are an individual who is directly related to the business – for example a family member of a family business or a director etc)

Employers only paying closely held payees, with fewer than 19 employees, have until the payee’s income tax return due date. Employers will need to liaise with the individual payee about the exact tax return due date.

For payees who have not been reported through STP, you will still need to issue a payment summary for each of them. You will also need to submit a payment summary annual report (PSAR) for any payments outside the STP system.

Once the STP finalisation has been sent to the ATO, the employee’s information will be released in their myGov account and listed as ‘tax ready’.

Balanced Beans Bookkeeping Newcastle has put together a handy checklist to help you ensure you are on track with your STP.

Single Touch Payroll Checklist

  • Be efficient and prepare as much as you can now so that you are able to finalise your data by 14 July.
  • Check that your business details, including ABN, registered name and address and authorised contact person are correct in your software.
  • You should already have necessary details for all employees, both current and any who have terminated throughout the year if you are using STP. The essential information is full name, date of birth, address, and tax file number.
  • Review any terminated employees. Is the correct termination date recorded in your software? Are Employment Termination Payments (ETPs) coded correctly?
  • Review salary sacrifice payments to superannuation for Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions (RESC) amounts.
  • Review salary sacrifice payments to superannuation for Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions (RESC) amounts.
  • Check with us for any Reportable Fringe Benefit Tax (RFBT) amounts that should be included.
  • Check that all payroll categories are assigned to the correct ATO reporting category. This includes all ordinary earnings, loadings and penalties, allowances, commissions, bonuses, leave payments and termination payments.
  • You may have other unusual payments such as those made under a voluntary agreement for contractors or labour-hire arrangements – check that you have reported them correctly.

Finalising Single Touch Payroll

It’s important to verify payroll figures before finalising, to minimise the chance of errors and having to re-issue later. The finalisation process is the same whether you are using STP Phase 1 reporting or Phase 2.

Once the payroll year is completed on 30 June, you can then analyse the payroll amounts for each employee and cross-check against the numbers in your profit and loss accounts.

Talk to us today if you would like us to make the STP end-of-year process easier.

We help by reviewing and validating your payroll figures prior to finalising the data and lodging with the ATO. The end of the payroll year will be here sooner than you think!

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