Single Touch Payroll Reporting (STPR): Phase 2

Are you reporting correctly?

The Government have expanded the Single Touch Payroll Reporting to include additional information and will now send this information to other Government Departments including Services Australia.  

 Single Touch Payroll Phase 2 doesn’t change the payments that need to be reported to the ATO but it will change how those amounts are to be reported.

 Some of the changes under Single Touch Payroll Phase 2 are:

 Income types

 Each amount paid to an employee will now need to have an income type assigned to it.  There are several different Income types but the most common type is SAW (salary and wages) and covers most common types of payments employees receive like regular salary and wages.  The other types cover income for working holiday makers, seasonal workers, foreign employment income etc.

 Disaggregation of gross

In Phase 1 you were only required to report a single gross amount paid to employees.  Under STP Phase 2 you will be required to separately report:

·        Gross

·        Paid leave

·        Allowances

·        Overtime

·        Bonuses and commissions

·        Directors fees

·        Lump sum W

·        Salary Sacrifice

TFN Declarations

While new employees still complete these for your records, you are no longer required to send these to the ATO.  Any new employees and their employment details will be added to your ATO records when you submit your STP2 report when processing payroll.

Child support reporting

Depending on the payroll program you are using, you may be able to report child support amounts using STP2 direct to Services Australia.  Payments will still need to paid as they currently are.

The ATO have released a guide to the changes which can be found at ato.gov.au/stp2guide.  We recommend that you review your payroll system to ensure you are compliant with STP Phase 2 reporting requirements if you have not already done so.