ATO support for employers with expansion of STP

As part of the expansion of Single Touch Payroll (known as STP Phase 2), from 1 January 2022, employers will need to report additional payroll information in their STP reports including:

• disaggregation of gross amounts (including separate reporting of paid leave, allowances, overtime, directors’ fees and salary sacrifice amounts);
• employment and taxation conditions (including information from the TFN declaration); and
• income types (for example, salary and wages, working holiday maker income, foreign employment income).

To support employers with the move to STP Phase 2 reporting, the ATO will take the following approach:

• Employers that can start Phase 2 reporting by their digital service provider’s deferral date (if applicable), do not need to apply to the ATO for more time.
• If an employer’s software will be ready for 1 January 2022 and they are able to start reporting before 1 March 2022, they do not need to apply to the ATO for more time (that is, an automatic extension applies).

The ATO has also advised that penalties will not be applied for genuine mistakes in the first year of Phase 2 reporting until 31 December 2022.