Single Touch Payroll for Employees

Why you might not receive a Payment Summary from your employer this year

Every year, many Australian's wait eagerly to receive a copy of their payment summary (group certificate), as this signals to them they can start the process of having their tax return completed. While tax can be a scary thing for some, those who typically receive a refund look forward to it. While the topic of Single Touch Payroll has been discussed in great deal from an employer's perspective, the topic of Single Touch Payroll for Employees is one that is largely unheard of.

Employer's have typically had until the 14th of July to get payment summaries to employees. With the introduction of cloud technology, this process has become much quicker. With the ability to finalise payment summaries with a few clicks of a button, the employer can then email this to the employee. Those that are sitting around waiting for this email this year, may be waiting forever.

This year the ATO has introduced Single Touch Payroll (STP). It is mandatory for all business' employing 20 or more people. While a lot of communication has gone out to business owner's regarding this, not all employees are even aware of it's existence. The major difference for employee's, is that instead of receiving a payment summary from their employer, they will now receive an income statement. This income statement can be found in the employees myGov account. This is where some of the issues will arise.

While this introduction does make the information more accessible for employees, it also assumes they have myGov accounts, or more importantly, check their myGov account. To make matters more confusing, it will only be certain business' using this method this year. This means someone with multiple employer's may receive a payment summary from one and an income statement through myGov for the other.

While this all may seem confusing, there are some simple ways to handle this. The easiest way is to ensure you have a myGov account that is accessible. If not, your tax agent will receive this information when they access the Tax Agent Portal. This means for anyone who is completing their return through an agent you don't need to provide anything relating to that income as your agent will already have it. If you don't want to use myGov, and don't use a tax agent or the My Tax service, you will need to call the ATO.

With the lack of communication, Single Touch Payroll for Employees is a topic they may not even be aware of. This year may be a struggling for employer's and employees, but going forward it will hopefully be a system that provides speed and transparency.

Rooshock Accounting welcomes the introduction of Single Touch Payroll. This makes our Online Individual Tax Return Individual Tax Return Online & Email process much simpler for our clients.