EMPLOYERS WITH CLOSELY HELD PAYEES
If you have 20 or more employees, you should be reporting closely held payees each pay day along with arms-length employees. The finalisation due date for closely held payees is 30 September 2020.
If you have 19 or fewer employees and are voluntarily reporting your closely held payees, you can also finalise by 30 September 2020 for the 2019–2020 financial year.
MAKING A FINALISATION DECLARATION
Before making your finalisation declaration, make sure your STP information is correct. If you cannot make a finalisation declaration by the due date, you will need to apply for a deferral. You can finalise your data earlier if it is ready. The sooner you finalise your employees’ information, the sooner they will be able to lodge their tax returns.
When you have reported and finalised your employees' information through STP, you are exempt from:
- providing payment summaries to your employees; and
- lodging a payment summary annual report.
For payments to your employees that were not reported through STP, you still need to:
- give a payment summary to your employees; and
- provide The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) with a payment summary annual report for these payment summaries.
MAKING AN AMENDMENT
If you identify that you need to make an amendment after you have submitted a finalisation declaration, you will need to submit these as soon as possible. You can make the amendments to finalised STP data in your STP solution.
The ATO recommend you tell your employees when you make an adjustment that will be reflected in their income statement. If they have already lodged their tax return, they may need to lodge an amendment.
WHAT TO TELL YOUR EMPLOYEES
You will need to tell your employees:
- you are no longer required to provide them with a payment summary for the information you have reported and finalised through STP;
- they can access their year-to-date and end-of-year income statement online through myGov or talk to their registered tax agent;
- 'income statement' is the new term for their payment summary;
- to wait until their income statement is 'Tax ready' before lodging their tax return;
- to check their personal details and if necessary update with both you and the ATO (incorrect personal details may prevent them from seeing their STP information);
- The way you get your payment summary is changing and Employee factsheet are available to help them understand the changes; and
- if they do not have a myGov account they can easily create one – see Setting up your myGov account.
WHAT YOUR EMPLOYEES WILL SEE
STP allows your employees to view their payment information at any time in the ATO online services through myGov.
On 1 July, they will see the status of this information change from 'year-to-date' to 'not tax ready'. It will stay like that until you submit your finalisation declaration. When you have made the finalisation declaration, your employees will see the status of their payment information change to 'tax ready'.
Some employees like to lodge their tax returns early in July and may choose to do so before you have finalised their STP information. We will make it clear to them that their income statement is not 'tax ready'. If they choose to use the un-finalised information, they will need to acknowledge that:
- you may finalise their income statement with different amounts; and
- they may need to amend their tax return and pay additional tax.
EMPLOYEES WITH MORE THAN ONE EMPLOYER
If your employees have more than one employer, remind them that not all employers have started STP reporting yet. They will still receive a payment summary from employers who are not yet reporting through STP.
EMPLOYEES WITHOUT A MYGOV ACCOUNT
If your employee does not have a myGov account, it is easy for them to create one. See Using ATO online services – individuals and sole traders for information on how set up a myGov account and link it to the ATO.
They can also talk to their tax agent who will have access to their income statement information. If they cannot create a myGov account and do not have a tax agent, they can phone the ATO on 13 28 61.