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Single Touch Payroll for Micro Employers

If as an employer you are not ready for Single Touch Payroll (STP) don’t panic!   Although 1 July has rolled around, smaller employers (those with less than 19 employees) have three months from this date (until 1 October 2019) to be STP-compliant. Furthermore, no penalties will be imposed during the initial 12 months of STP, therefore there is no need to be worried.

While for many employers, their STP solution will be to adopt STP-compliant software or outsource their payroll to their registered Accountant or Bookkeeper, many very small employers may be eligible for the micro-employer concessions including:

• Reporting quarterly through their registered accountant or bookkeeper for two-years until 30 June 2021 (instead of reporting each time you pay your employees)
• Adopting a free or low-cost, simplified STP solution (as opposed to payroll software).

Micro employers are those with less than five employees at the time of application. Virtually all employees are counted (including casuals, those on leave, and employees working overseas), however closely-held payees are excluded – namely, family members of a family business, directors or shareholders of a company, and beneficiaries of a trust.

In the event that a business is currently a micro employer but later no longer qualifies as it puts on extra staff, the ATO adopts a different approach in respect continued eligibility for the above concessions. While eligibility for quarterly reporting will be unaffected by an increase in staff above four, the ATO expects employers to cease using the simplified, low cost STP reporting solutions if they later cease to qualify as a micro employer. This would then generally mean adopting STP-compliant software, or lodging via your registered accountant or bookkeeper

In respect of the low-cost, simplified STP solutions, an updated list of products now available and currently in development is maintained on the ATO website. There are a wide range of products available including free solutions such as apps to install on your phone that allow employers to simply key in employee payroll information (gross amounts per pay, and tax withheld etc.) and send it to the ATO (and thereby maintain your manual payroll systems if you so choose).

Of course, micro employers can opt to disregard these free or low-cost solutions and instead adopt STP-compliant software and, in doing so, enjoy the advantages of computerizing your payroll processes.