It's important your employer clients start the new financial year on the right foot by keeping on top of their payroll governance. Help them understand how to comply with their obligations as an employer and how to manage payroll administration. This includes:
- reporting employees’ tax and super information through Single Touch Payroll (STP)-enabled software each time they pay their employees
- setting up STP reporting properly, including mapping pay codes and allowances correctly in the software
- withholding the right amount of tax
- reporting fringe benefits tax
- calculating super guarantee (SG) correctly
- paying their liabilities in full and on time.
Lodging STP reports with the correct information on time each pay day ensures:
- we can pre-fill electronic activity statements in ATO online services with correct information so your employer clients only have to give us the information once
- employees have accurate payroll information reported about them when they are interacting with other government agencies such as Services Australia
- your employer clients are reporting their pay as you go withholding and SG liabilities to us, so that we don’t contact them unnecessarily.
If your employer clients realise they've made a mistake, timely corrections are important. We have a list of common errors and steps on correcting STP reporting on our website.
Good record keeping practices are important to help meet employer obligations. This means your employer clients should:
- regularly review their payroll processes, including their payment obligations to the ATO
- make sure they are keeping up to date with any changes that could impact their business.