Login
iscover
Authorisation failures and software set-up issues are among some of the top mistakes accountants and their business clients are making with the new Single Touch Payroll regime, with one in 10 failing their first submission.
Tax Office reveals common STP set-up mistakes
13 August 2019
•
7 minute read
With the Single Touch Payroll regime now over a month old for employers with 19 or fewer employees, ATO assistant commissioner Jason Lucchese has shed light on some of the common mistakes he continues to see with the initial set-up of STP.
The first involves authorisations to allow the registered tax or BAS agents to act on behalf of the client for STP lodgement.
“One of the most common mistakes we’re seeing is that some employers and tax professionals don’t have internal authorisations in place before they commence or commence reporting,” Mr Lucchese told Accountants Daily.
“That’s where the person who will be sending the STP report may not be the business owner or the public officer, and they need to make sure they’ve made appropriate delegations or they’ve put appropriate delegation.
“For example, the payroll manager, they may need to be added as an authorised contact if they’re interacting with the ATO about STP matters.
“Similarly, if you are a registered tax or BAS agent, to lodge STP reports on a client’s behalf, they obviously must authorise that agent and they’ll need to make sure that they are linked to their business in ATO systems as part of that initial set-up.”
The other most common mistake involves connecting to the ATO using a software service ID (SSID).
Mr Lucchese noted that STP reports will not be received unless the correct SSID is provided — usually done by calling the ATO or through a one-off notification through access manager.
“For tax agents, with single clients or themselves, they can phone us to provide that SSID or they can also complete a one-off notification through access manager as well,” he said.
“For agents that have multiple clients, they can also do that through a bulk request form through the tax or BAS agent portals through the ATO website.”
These mistakes are still leading to a 10 per cent failure rate on first submission, an early learning first raised in June when about 65,000 small business employers were reporting through STP.
That number has now jumped to over 300,000 out of the total 750,000 small business population, with just over a month out before the 30 September transition deadline.
You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member for free today!
- People forget the big picture. STP is the first step towards payment with lodgement when payroll done. Do not be surprised if SCOMO brings this in quickly before the next election with the help of Labour. There are allready whispers of all GST to be done monthly especially if they pass the directors legislation. Just some food for thought.
0 - The ATO has outsourced a vast quantity of data entry; its costs are reduced; the Commissioner tells Parliament "I have reduced the cost of running the ATO"; he gets a bonus at year end review.
The cost of running the tax system is now higher, but not directly visible to parliament.0 - ATO assumes everyone is a tech wiz but give a bureaucrat a pile of timber, a hammer and a bunch of nails and ask them to build a house and they wouldn't know where to start. Therein lies the problem with implementing and running STP. BTW why didn't the ATO put out to tender one simple system everyone could use provided to businesses for free. This renting software forever is an impost on business that was totally unnecessary and unfair.0
- In my opinion 90% of accountants and related administrators have little to no idea of what the whole point of STP is! Google the subject and you will find thousands of pages reviewing what STP administration is all about but next to nothing on the economic benefits its existence delivers. There are a few articles that do try and address the cost benefit of STP. Having said that those that do often advance arguments that are easy to logically discredit and question. I challenge anyone reading this to set out some clear, structured and logical arguments on the cost benefit of STP. I also put it out there that discrediting those positions and establishing that you have overlooked, over valued and/or simply not thought through your position will be easy work. For those of you that think it is all about the need for real time wage data before commenting read up on who was, how they did, why they did and most importantly what they were doing with wage data before STP existed.0
- Read this and fell asleep
Don’t care about STP, if you pay wages just do your job and stop the whinging0- That’s the problem. Too few people thinking; too many just like you, ticking boxes for a living.0
- STP is the first step in creating a wages/payg clearing house. The purpose is to ensure ATO gets their revenue, staff get their wages and small businesses are forced into implementing better processes around cashflow.0
- Revenue is PAYG W one assumes. Which is reported in BAS’s, cross checked with annual PAYG summaries etc. Moreover, nothing in STP stops you under withholding PAYG. Even if, not sure when, ATO start cross checking live STP data streams with minimum PAYG W regulations they would need to take specific action under the PAYG W rules. In many cases paying quarterly re associates etc would easily allow you to bypass much of this anyway. Finally, ATO have been able to apply PAYG W under reporting to annual PAYG lodged summaries for years and they have never so. So why does STP help with revenue. Also why does paying wages through your software improve cashflow just because you transmit data to ATO. If it is because you have to PAY the reported PAYG W, point above covers that plus of course reporting PAYG W and paying it are two different things. Moreover, where is the evidence of widespread under payment of PAYG W that is resulting in lost revenue? To claim PAYG W it needs to be reported and liability raised before a refund is given in a personal tax return already.0
- There is no benefit except to the ATO''s phoenix task force. They use the data to model risk and help predict the most at risk entities. But really it's because the ATO is totalitarian0
- They use the data to model risk and help predict the most at risk entities. On the basis that data is the new oil and knowledge is power must confess you have a point. You wonder though about the huge cost and red tape that goes with harvesting it all. Maybe the ATO rely on all those ‘non-thinkers’ out there who are happy to be told what to do all day.0
