Single Touch Payroll (and all the surrounding panic) Is Here

Single Touch Payroll is here for those small businesses with 20 or more employees. It is due to come in for those Employers employing 19 people or less from the 1st July 2019.

This is not law yet but it’s on its way and some micro businesses are needlessly panicking.

The ATO are leading the charge in providing a solution for those businesses with less than 5 employees.

Assistant Commissioner and STP lead, John Shepherd says, “you won’t need to buy payroll software, if you are a micro business. We’re working on something that’s fit for purpose, like an app,  to get the STP information in but is also easy to use, doesn’t take much time and doesn’t cost micro businesses extra.”

He goes on to say, “We’ve spoken to some different banks and the possibilities around as people pay staff through internet banking being able to submit the single touch pay run information at the same time and we expect that to be part of the list of options that come forward over the next 12 months.”

In addition, earlier this month, the ATO began seeking expressions of interest from digital services providers to develop Single Touch Payroll software for the micro business market, looking at a low or no-cost solution, software that has a simple user experience and a solution that will enable STP reporting within no more than 5 minutes.

This is all excellent news and my message to business owners is: DON’T PANIC…… Take a chill pill, all will be sorted.

Pat Mannix, Partner, Paris Financial