On 1 July 2017, a limited release of Single Touch Payroll began for a small number of digital service providers and their clients.
Between July and October 2017, Single Touch Payroll will operate with a limited group.
From mid-October 2017 additional functionality will be available and you will be able to start releasing Single Touch Payroll after this time. We understand most releases will be staggered and you will let your users know as solutions become available. Once available, employers can voluntarily choose to start reporting through Single Touch Payroll early.
Working Group Updates
Design Working Group
We released the Draft Business Rules for Payroll Reporting on 20 June 2017.
This working group has held a number of micro groups and discussions have covered the following areas:
- return messaging including channel validation
- (employer and Tax and Bas Agent declarations) – identifying natural points within the payroll process whereby declarations can be captured as well as the form of the declaration
- employee commencement (future state flows) - review of proposed design concept
- exemptions and deferrals.
The outcomes of these meetings will be included in an update of the business rules scheduled for mid-July. We continue to develop scenarios to support the business rules and a number will be included in this update of the business rules.
We plan to continue to add new sections of rules and scenarios as they are developed.
Technical Working Group
This working group is focussing on identifying technical capability to address business requirements raised by the design working group and includes:
- return error messaging
- authorisation
- file size
- encryption
- queuing
A Single Touch Payroll technical working group (TWG) was held 29 June 2017 and discussed the above items. Please find more information here.
Please see the Technical Working Groups schedule, as a rule the Single Touch Payroll specific technical discussion is held on the fourth Thursday of the month, with interim opportunities for discussion at each general technical working group.
Readiness Working Group
This group is again, a collaboration between industry and the ATO and is working on delivering timely and accurate information for stakeholders.
The ATO released updated web content on 1 July 2017 and an Employer Factsheet will be available on request. If you would like a copy, please email the Single Touch Payroll mailbox.
Over the next three months, our focus is to support you and intermediaries with information about Single Touch Payroll, including key dates.
We are proposing to write to all employers with 20 or more employees during September 2017 to inform them of their reporting obligations under Single Touch Payroll.
You should plan to update your users about when your product/s will be ready.
The amount of effort put into this by the participants and the collaboration with industry representatives has been extraordinary and it pleasing to see such great progress.
The timeline for releases
From 1 July 2017:
A closed group of employers will be able to:
- lodge a payroll event through a Single Touch Payroll-enabled solution
- correct information in a later payroll event report.
Other digital service providers can continue to test their products.
From October 2017:
- Additional functionality will include the ability for employers to:
- lodge an update event
- send a ‘classic xml’ file to the ATO
- inform their employees they can see their salary and wage information online through myGov
- it is also proposed that employers may invite their employees to complete a TFN declaration and Super standard choice form online through myGov, where this functionality is available in their BMS. There is still design work to be finalised as well as the consideration of outcomes of a consultation paper which was recently released on the online choice form.
Digital service providers will be able to test this updated functionality and transition their clients to Single Touch Payroll reporting.
From March/April 2018:
Proposed functionality will include the ability for employers to:
- enable their employees to complete TFN Declaration and Super standard choice forms through their payroll software.
On 1 April 2018:
Employers will need to:
- count the number of employees they have on this date and include them in their headcount to determine if they have 20 or more employees.
From 1 July 2018:
- Single Touch Payroll reporting will be mandatory for employers with 20 or more employees.
- employers who report an employee’s payment and withholding details through Single Touch Payroll may not have to provide that employee with a payment summary at the end of the financial year.
Superannuation Payment Reporting
- From 1 July 2018 employers with 20 or more employees were required to notify the ATO of the payment of Superannuation Guarantee amounts.
- We have been working with APRA Fund trustees to determine whether we are able to receive notification of contributions from trustees after the contribution is allocated to a member’s account. This would allow the ATO to exempt an employer from reporting payment of Superannuation contribution amounts when paid to a fund.
- We are in the final stages of confirming the design to support collection of contribution information from APRA Fund trustees and expect to be able to confirm within the next two weeks that this will proceed.
- Further information on this design will also be presented to the Design Working Group in late July.