STP – Count the Heads not the Eggs on 1 April

If you’re are a small business owner with close to 20 staff then this Sunday you’ll be counting heads not eggs to see if you will be designated as a substantial employer and captured in the mandatory reporting of Single Touch Payroll (STP) commencing on 1 July this year.  Happy Easter!

April Fools Day Joke?

Well, it’s no joke although I must say someone at the ATO has a quirky sense of humour, you have to admit!  And in the words of the ATO

Doing nothing is not an option.

Single Touch Payroll IS coming, just like winter.

The headcount a bit like the census. You can do it after 1 April, but you need to count the employees who were on your payroll on 1 April.  It’s actually all about the staff on your payroll as at that day. So head back out and catch up with the egg hunt.

How To Count the Heads (not the Eggs)

Well if you know you have over 20 employees on 1 April then it really is a no-brainer, you’re one of the already expected 100,000 Aussie businesses included in the mandatory roll out on 1 July, produce your report and save it (see below) – resume your Easter mini break and go back to eating all that good chocolate and enjoy whatever you have planned.

If you are well under 20 employees on 1 April, again it’s a no-brainer, produce your report and save it (see below), you can resume whatever you are doing and enjoy your Sunday, but don’t forget you will need to be ready by 1 July 2019, so keep up with all the news.

If you hover somewhere in the middle then you really do need to ensure you take the headcount of your payroll records for all those employees as at 1 April 2018.  It’s just a simple matter of producing reports that can verify the self-assessment you are making as to whether you will be included in the mandatory STP roll out on 1 July.

If you use a good accounting system like MYOB or Xero then produce 2 reports. The first one of all your employees – an employee card report – count the staff on this report taking note of the who’s in and who’s out of the headcount in my recent post STP – Be Prepared. The second report you may need if you employee casual staff will be a payroll report for the month of March to count those casual staff who were paid in March – they are included. Add and subtract your ins and outs and if the final number is 20 or more then you win the STP lottery.  Save your reports somewhere safe as future proof if ever you need to validate your headcount.

If you do your payroll manually – contact me immediately (or one of my amazing bookkeeper colleagues around Australia) and learn how to get back some valuable time in your business – you really do need to start thinking about all the automation available to you.

You can also get creative, after all, it is April Fools Day.  You could line up all your employees and shoot them…

with your camera I mean 🙂

and make your marks on your photo – that could prove very cathartic don’t you think? What other creative ways can you think of to have some fun with your headcount?

I’ll deal with the next steps after Easter but if you would like further information click on the timeline below.

Single Touch Payroll
Single Touch Payroll Timeline (image from ATO)

You Get an Extra Hour (if you’re in a lucky state!)

The good news is you get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday to ensure you are at your peak performance levels to undertake your STP headcount (yes sadly daylight savings end this Sunday as well) – What an Easter Sunday it is – Easter Sunday, April Fools Day, STP Headcount day and the end of daylight savings!!!

We are here to help make your transition to STP painless.

Don’t wait till the last minute,

schedule an appointment with us today

Click Here to Book an STP Consultation

and have a happy Easter.

 

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