For NDIS Clients or clients with only WPNs and employee between 1-10 staff, do we need to start getting ready for STP?

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1 Will there be a free program/software for STP use? The ATO has released an Expression of Interest (EOI) for providers in the market to create a no or low cost simple STP solution for small, but specifically micro employers. The micro solution must be $10 or less per month. So far, we have had a number of providers nominate to provide these types of products. Will STP be applied to closely held entities (e.g. single director companies, Mum & Dad operated companies, etc.) whereas payrolls are not run regularly? The ATO recognises that employers of closely held payees don't necessarily have regular payroll runs for those payees. As such there will be generous transition options as well the option to report quarterly for those closely held payees. The ATO will be publishing more guidance on this soon. For NDIS Clients or clients with only WPNs and employee between 1-10 staff, do we need to start getting ready for STP? Legislation has not yet passed for employers with 19 or fewer employees. If it does pass, we anticipate the start will be 1 July 2019, however there will be generous transition arrangements and support to start STP reporting. Can an employer with <20 employees implement STP prior to 1 July 2019? Yes, absolutely. If you have an STP-enabled product, you can start at any time. We already have approximately 15,000 employers reporting voluntarily. If we decided to opt-in in March would we still prepare a payment summary for the full financial year? There are 5 transition options to start reporting which you can see in detail here: When will the closely held organisation publication be released? In the coming weeks we will be publishing the reporting options for closely held payees. This information will be available at ato.gov.au/stp

2 Is the ATO going to provide mass media communication to clearly communicate STP to employees/general populace since there is still lack of understanding STP and the upcoming changes? A fact sheet is available for employers to provide their employees and can be accessed here: This fact sheet was developed based on employer feedback that they would like to control when they provide this information to their employees. Our tax time messaging will include information about no longer receiving payment summaries, mygov and pre-fill. How will ATO proactively communicate to Tax Agents the options available, once they are available (e.g. via s)? We will continue to provide updates and news information via the relevant channels (such as the newsletter) but we do encourage you to continue to visit ato.gov.au/stp. There will be more communication coming as more information regarding solutions is available. Can Tax Agent lodge STP on behalf of employer clients using tax agent portal? Will there be exactly tool/software/reporting application for tax agents to use in that case? Tax professionals are able to lodge on behalf of their clients using one of these solutions. The ATO will not be providing a portal or product. The STP pay event report needs to be lodged through an STP enabled solution. Alternatively, the ATO has released an Expression of Interest (EOI) for providers in the market to create a no or low cost simple STP solution for small, but specifically micro employers. The micro solution must be $10 or less per month, so the client may choose this option. Now that Fair Work has decided to involve Tax agents who provide payroll services into the 'wage theft' net - why should we get involved with anything to do with STP? Fair Work have their own rules around accessorial liability and the ATO has no influence in that area. The Tax Practitioners Board requirements have always been that you must act professionally and ethically as an agent. Additionally, as an STP pay event is an approved form (just like a BAS or ITR) your client will have to sign-off that the information is a) true and correct and that b) that they have authorised the agent to lodge. If as an agent, we have a payroll software that is STP enabled, can we lodge a number of our clients' payroll on the one package? Are tax agents going to be able to see if clients have been lodging STP? Tax and BAS agents can lodge STP reports on behalf of their employer clients and registered agents can see STP lodgements through the Tax and BAS agent portals. Whether you use your own software will be dependent on the arrangement you make with your clients. We have created a new 'STP' role that a registered agent can link themselves to for their clients. Can agents send a bulk list to the ATO to provide the SSID for STP? Is there a form for RTAs to notify in bulk employer software? Agents can submit a bulk request. More info can be found here:

3 Will tax agents be able to also view the payments made to date for employees through the ATO portal? Tax agents will have the following views made available: 1. the tax agent for the employer will be able to view via the agent portal, all the STP submissions made by the employer including submission date, submission ID and the W1 and W2 totals for each file (no employee level data will be shown). 2. the agent for the employee/individual will be able to view the income reported for that employee/individual and will receive a pre-fill report from STP once the employer finalises the employees STP data for the financial year What are the criteria for being eligible for the quarterly STP reporting? Micro employers who use a tax or BAS agent to lodge their BAS will have the ability to lodge their STP reports quarterly at the same time. There will be eligibility criteria (such as being up to date with lodgements and payments (it's ok if a payment plan or deferral is in place). We will be publishing more guidance on this soon. What are examples of alternatives to cloud solutions to lodge STP? There are a number of solutions available in the market. The EOIs for low cost, simple alternatives will also include commercial portal and app solutions. Will there still be a requirement to provide employees with payslips through each pay cycle? Yes, payslips are a Fair Work obligation and must still be provided to employees in accordance with existing requirements. Will we need to submit STP when we process the payslips at the end of the month or transition to fortnightly payslips and STP reporting? Payslips are a Fair Work obligation, so we suggest you check with Fair Work on your current process. The STP lodgement is due on or before employee payday (i.e. if you pay fortnightly, you'll need to submit the STP report each fortnight). Under STP will the tax SGC and wages be paid at the same time or sill the existing SGC and tax payment dates apply? Under STP the due date of payment for wages, PAYG withholding and superannuation guarantee will remain the same. Employers must pay their employees in-line with their industrial relations obligations. Do we lodge SGC forms per normal process in light of STP? The employer obligations for reporting and paying superannuation guarantee via SuperStream will not change under STP. Was super guarantee reported by the ATO via STP? Yes, the pay event file requires that either the superannuation liability (akin to the payslip YTD) or OTE is reported per pay event. The funds are gradually started to report to the ATO the amounts of super that an employer pays through the new Member Account Transaction Summary (MATS) reporting program.

4 Will the ATO require the employer pay over the tax and Super liabilities at the same time as paying the payroll? Initially STP was drafted to include both pay-day reporting and pay-day payment of PAYG withholding. After extensive industry, business and community feedback, Government removed the requirement for PAYG withholding to be paid per pay day. However, the employer does have the option of paying PAYG withholding on a per pay day basis if they so choose. Will there be options to lodge amendments for previously submitted STP? There is no requirement to go back and adjust previous STP reports. More about corrections and adjustments can be found here: Will every employee need to have a mygov account? Employers have fulfilled their end of year obligations if they have reported and finalised STP information via the Finalisation Declaration process. Employees who do not have or do not wish to register for a mygov account are encouraged to do so but can also request their Income Statement from the ATO. If my client wrongly reports super on a lodged STP, and we attend to amendment using the SGC forms, what will be displayed on their mygov account once it is updated? Super liability information is reported each pay event as a YTD so we will expect to see the correction at some stage via a future pay event submission. Employee information on mygov will be updated accordingly. Can the framework support the electronic reporting of STP information to the ATO? How often will there be technical difficulties or system unavailable. What is the work around for this? The ATO has invested in the infrastructure in the lead up to STP to ensure our systems are ready and capable. To date we have had no system outages relating to STP reporting. We are confident in our systems capability but in the case of an outage or interruption, we have the capability to queue which essentially the employer can lodge their STP report and we will process when our systems are back up and running. What if we have forgotten to lodge for 1 week, will it make a difference if we lodge the week after? The ATO will be supporting employers to get it right and on time. There are no penalties for the first year of reporting. However, in saying that, the pay event report is due on or before employee payday. Will STP training be provided to Indigenous organisations, particularly in our remote areas? There are many great tools available now, including employer guidance (webinars, fact sheets and online videos) available as well as providers rolling out their training. There will most certainly be more in the future. If there is a particular need identified, please contact us for support.

5 Is there going to be any change to reporting the wage information on BAS's as a result of STP? STP information will be prefilled into W1 and W2 labels on the BAS commencing Dec W1 box is not available for large entities who started STP. How do we see the data they have lodged at the end of the year to reconcile their wages? Employers can view their STP lodgements in the business portal. Can we set up a recurring lodgement if employees are paid the exact same amount each fortnight? You will need to speak to your solution provider to see if this is something which can be done in your software. When will annual reconciliation requires to be lodge to ATO using STP? The end of year finalisation declaration will be due on 14 July. We have provided additional time for the first year of reporting. These dates can be found here: Touch-Payroll/In-detail/Single-Touch-Payroll-employer-reportingguidelines/?page=7#Finalising_your_Single_Touch_Payroll_data Are there any chance micro businesses will stay at quarterly past the 2-year transition? This transition approach will be reviewed before the two years lapses and the Commissioner will make a determination. Where do we find the 30 suppliers register? Make payroll simple w: epayroll.com.au / t: / e: partner@epayroll. com.au Source - Information provided by Small Business Client Engagement Group Office of the Assistant Commissioner, Single Touch Payroll, Australian Tax office. While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in this publication is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information.