Employers report their pay as you go (PAYG) withholding information to the ATO each time they pay their employees using Single Touch Payroll (STP).
From July, the tax office will prefill the PAYG withholding amounts in your activity statements in ATO online. ATO PAYG withholding prefill will be available for small and medium employers from the:
- July activity statement for monthly PAYG withholders
- September activity statement for quarterly PAYG withholders.
The ATO use the amounts you report in STP to prefill labels W1 and W2:
- Label W1: Total salary, wages and other payments
- Label W2: Amount withheld from payments shown at W1.
You’ll only need to change prefilled amounts if they don’t match your records. Most (but not all) PAYG withholding will be reported through STP. Complete any remaining labels on your activity statement before you lodge and pay (where applicable) as you do now.
Digital service providers will choose which products they make prefill available in and when.
From July, the ATO will pilot reminding employers to lodge their activity statements in the 2023–24 financial year. They’ll randomly select 3,000 employers from those who have:
- an outstanding activity statement, and
- reported PAYG withholding in STP for the period.
If you have a tax professional acting on your behalf, the ATO will advise them if you have been selected.
Find out more about how the ATO use STP data to simplify your activity statement reporting this year.
Should you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact our team at Cotchy.
Source: ATO Newsroom