Happy New (Financial) Year

Author: Kate Smith

30 June recognises the end of the financial year, but for employers the work continues.

Despite this year’s June 30 being a little different from normal with the COVID lockdown and limited access to services, it is important all employer obligations are squared away.

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) have recognised COVID is continuing to influence business’s ability to meet their compliance obligations and have provided some concessions:

• Employers - Single Touch Payroll (STP)
  • The ATO introduced Single Touch Payroll (STP) from 1 July 2018 with some concessions for closely held and small employers. As of 1 July, the ATO concessions cease and the STP rollout effects all businesses. Closely held employees and micro businesses must be using digitally enabled STP reporting.
  • No paper PAYG summaries from here on! This will force some businesses to look at different software options to ensure they are able to report their pay events as required to the ATO.
• STP- finalisation
  • On 30 June employers must finalise their STP which will enable their employees access to their payment summaries from MyGov or their Tax agent’s portal.
  • An extension has been announced to extend the STP finalisation declarations for the year end from 14 July to 31 July. For closely held and arm’s length employers the date for lodgement remains 30 September.
• Superannuation
  • The STP regime also provides up to date information on your employer superannuation obligations. Businesses need to be making quarterly superannuation payments for each quarter by the end of the following month.
  • From 1 July 2021 businesses are required to pay 10 % superannuation on ordinary times earnings.
  • MYOB has announced their software will not update from 9.5% to 10% superannuation automatically and you must make these changes manually to your payroll.
  • Xero and Quickbooks have advised their software will automatically update, but pleased check that first payrun.
• Business portal
  • Business portal is retiring. If you have been using the Business Portal to communicate with the ATO you need to switch to their new Online Services for business.
• Payroll tax
  • The Queensland State government has not yet issued any new extensions and Payroll Tax annual return dates remain on 21 July.
• Workcover
  • Declarations for this are due 31 August.

• Minimum Wage Increases
  • You may have seen the recent announcements to increase the minimum wage by 2.5%. This happens in stages, and we suggest all employers check their awards and ensure their payrates are current as your software will not update automatically.
• Review your employee allowances
  • The ATO have released TD 2021/6 setting out the ATO reasonable travel and overtime meal allowance expense amounts for the coming year.
• ATO debt
  • We have seen an increase in ATO activity to collect debt that may have been deferred during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • We suggest if you cannot pay, continue to lodge and maintain your reporting obligations and contact the ATO or your PVW Partners Advisor to make alternative arrangements with the ATO.
• Record keeping
  • This is the right time to think about updating your record keeping, especially as your staff may be working from home.

As ATO data reporting requirements increase, it is essential employers maintain the ability to access and report timely information to fulfill these obligations.

Please reach out to your PVW Partners trusted Business Advisor to ensure you’re ready for the new 2021/22 tax year.

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