Single Touch Payroll has been long in development but it is finally reaching fruition with a pilot program rolling out to small business across the country.
Sybiz is not planning to ready Sybiz Visipay for participation in the voluntary 2017/18 pilot intake due to the well documented IT issues the ATO has recently faced and the current lack of complete clarity as to what will be required come 1 July.
However, employers need to start paying attention now as Single Touch Payroll has the potential to be as big a shakeup for payroll software in Australia as the GST was to accounting software.
The ATO is proposing Single Touch Payroll to be a streamlined, but more robust, payroll payment and reporting standard. Employees are expected to gain greater visibility of their year to date earnings, PAYG withholding amounts and superannuation contributions, potentially eliminating the need for EOFY payment summaries for some employees. Single Touch Payroll will also seek to simplify employee onboarding, with data such as Tax File Numbers and super fund details pulled automatically from the myGov web portal or STP-compliant software.
The end outcome of STP should see employers benefiting from a 'single touch' of their payroll software each pay run, resulting in all stakeholders being reported to and paid.
The ATO expects to start collecting information through the Single Touch Payroll standard from employers with 20 or more employees beginning June 2018.
Sybiz will continue to communicate with the Australian Tax Office to understand all requirements.