Rules of reporting through STP

Requirements for an STP report

An STP report must meet minimum requirements. Your payroll solution will ensure you meet them, if they are not met you will not be able to lodge your STP report. We use the information you report to us about your employees to match your STP reporting with your employee's tax record.

This matching process ensures your employees' income statements are available to them in ATO online services.

Each STP report must contain information at the employee and employer level.

Employee level

Your STP report must contain at least one employee record. Each submission can only include one record per payee per payroll identifier (ID):

• if you establish 2 payroll records for an individual, you can report these payments within the same pay event by using unique payroll ID
• you must report separate year-to-date (YTD) amounts for each unique payroll ID for an employee.

Where an employee is paid more than once on a particular day, you may provide a single report for that employee including the latest YTD figures (for example, updated YTD figures including all payments made for the day).

You may lodge multiple pay event files for the same day. Your system will generate a timestamp which is used to identify the latest record for each employee to ensure the employee's myGov display recognises the latest record.

Where it is available, you should include the following information:

• given name, other given name, and family name. If the employee only has one name, enter the name in the family field and leave the other name fields blank
• valid tax file number (TFN). If a TFN has not been provided you will need to include a TFN Exemption code
  • for contractors, where you report a payment and withholding under a voluntary agreement, you must provide the contractor’s Australian business number (ABN). The contractor’s TFN is not required. The reporting of these payments through STP is voluntary
  • a payee may be a contractor and employee with the same payroll ID within the same financial year. In this case the TFN and ABN must be reported.
• date of birth, except for entities such as death benefit trustees
• residential address
• personal email address
• mobile phone number.

You must report the YTD values of gross salary or wages, allowances or other payments, deductions, superannuation and pay as you go (PAYG) withholding where relevant for each employee included in that pay event.

Employer Level

You must report period gross salary or wages (BAS label W1) and PAYG withholding (BAS label W2) for all employee payments included in that pay event.

These are your 'employer-level amounts'.

These amounts may be negative because of corrections or changes you've made.

These amounts would generally correspond to the amounts you posted to your general ledger for the pay run.

If your payroll solution offers the functionality to report child support amounts and you choose to use it, you must also include your total period amounts for each child support type.

When your STP report is due

Your STP report is due on or before pay day.

Pay day is either:

• the payment date stipulated in the electronic transaction to your financial institution
• if no date is entered, the date you intend to pay your employee.

You can lodge multiple STP reports on the same day. Your system will apply a time stamp to each report to identify the most recent record for the financial year. This ensures the employee’s myGov account shows the latest record.

There are concessional reporting arrangements which provide a later due date in some circumstances.

Who you include in your STP report

Your STP report must include each employee you've made a payment to that is mandatory for you to report.

Your STP report may also include information for other employees, such as:

• those you've made a payment to that is voluntary to report
• those who've been reported earlier during the financial year but did not receive a payment for this pay period.

No payments to employees for an extended period

If you won’t be paying employees for an extended period, for example, where you are a seasonal employer, you may submit a ‘No requirement to report’ notification through Online services for business. This will prevent you from receiving lodgement reminders for STP.

To submit this request, log in to Online services for business  and complete the following steps:

1. Select Employees, then select STP deferrals and exemptions, choose No requirement to report.
2. Enter 'start and end dates'.
3. Attach any documents that we have asked for.
4. Complete the declaration.
5. Select Submit.
6. When the form is submitted, you'll receive an ATO receipt ID and be advised if the request has been accepted or has been sent for assessment.

Out-of-cycle reporting

You may make payments to employees outside of their regular pay cycle. For example when you pay commissions, bonuses, payments in advance or back payments to your employees.

These payments may be reported by either:

• submitting a pay event on or before the pay day you made the payment
• including the out-of-cycle payment made to the employee in the next regular pay event you lodge if your payroll solution offers this functionality. If the next regular pay cycle is in the following financial year, you must report the payment by 30 June in the year the payment was made before you finalise.

This is distinct from an ad hoc payment that is generally either run as a calculation simulation or as an advance of the regular salary (which is deemed as a loan) and should be reported at the time the actual salary is calculated.