Advanced Insights: Single Touch Payroll concessions

STP Reporting Concessions for Micro Employers and Closely Held Payees

Although STP reporting is scheduled to become mandatory from 1 July 2019, there are still a large number of small businesses out there that haven’t yet made the transition to STP reporting.  Only a month back, MYOB reported that around 700,000 microbusinesses were unprepared for the 1 July STP start date.

The good news is that, thanks to the enhancements that MYOB has made to its MYOB Exo Employer Services Software and its MYOB Advanced People cloud solution, once you have set up your MYOB software for STP reporting, it will handle almost all of the additional compliance work for you.

Concessions from STP reporting are available from the ATO to help you transition to STP reporting if you are:

• A micro employer with 1-4 employees
• A closely held payee with payees who are not at arm’s length, like family members, directors, shareholders or trust beneficiaries
• Seasonal and intermittent employers who generally do not have any employees, and then have an increase for less than 3 months of the financial year

The concessions allow eligible employers to have their registered agent report STP data on their behalf each quarter when they lodge their BAS activity statements with the ATO.  You can read about these concessions in more detail on the ATO website.

We’ve got to admit though, that by the time you’ve assessed your eligibility for a concession, contacted your registered agent and asked them to apply for a concession, and submitted a quarterly STP report via your registered tax agent, it would have been much easier to set up your MYOB software for STP reporting.  After all, MYOB Exo Employer Services Software and MYOB Advanced People have both been STP compliant for over a year now.

We’ve helped over 100 clients to start STP reporting and we can help you too. There are plenty of resources are on hand in our Customer Portal to help our clients commence STP reporting using either their MYOB Exo Employer Services software or their MYOB Advanced People cloud solution.

Need set-up assistance for STP reporting?

If you’d like more help, we offer an STP Transition Program where we walk you through the STP set-up process, your first STP reported pay run and your first STP Finalisation Event.  Please email us if you’d like to access more help.  Remember that you’ll need your AUSkey on hand to complete the setup process.

Need STP-compliant cloud payroll?

If you’d like to deploy a whole-of-business system that includes STP-compliant payroll, please email us to book in a demo.  We can kick-off your implementation with STP-compliant cloud payroll and help you apply for a deferred STP reporting start date to allow time for the implementation to occur.