STP Software
Developer
Guidelines
Version 1.2
Table of Contents
1
Aim .................................................................................................................................................. 3
2
STP Scope ........................................................................................................................................ 3
3
The STP Story .................................................................................................................................. 6
4
5
6
7
3.1
Timing and key events ............................................................................................................ 7
3.2
STP project principles.............................................................................................................. 7
3.3
STP benefits............................................................................................................................. 8
Payroll ............................................................................................................................................. 9
4.1
Key principles of the payroll event ......................................................................................... 9
4.2
Who can submit payroll events?............................................................................................. 9
4.3
Journey Map: Payroll Event Reporting Process .................................................................... 10
Co-Design and Release .................................................................................................................. 11
5.1
Software Developer Engagement Process and Publication Timelines ................................. 12
5.2
Employer’s reported data assurance .................................................................................... 14
STP Release 1 ................................................................................................................................ 14
6.1
Payroll Event Taxonomy........................................................................................................ 14
6.2
Payroll event messaging package ......................................................................................... 16
6.3
Areas of Consideration.......................................................................................................... 17
Version Control ............................................................................................................................. 19
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1
Aim
This document will provide solution providers with an understanding of the core function of STP –
the payroll event.
The payroll event allows businesses to report an employee’s salary and wage, PAYGW and super
guarantee amounts to the ATO at the same time as they pay their employees.
This phase is the first part of an end to end system that when completed will make up STP.
2
STP Scope
The above diagram represents the scope of STP from a business process perspective. The left hand
side shows input services into an employer STP enabled business management system (BMS)
encompassing commencement of new employees via a retail method (MyGov/ATO Online) and a
wholesale method through an employer’s BMS.
The centre identifies the effected business processes, such as payroll, HR, commencement of new
employees, business activity statement and payment summary annual reporting (PSAR).
The right identifies what the ATO will provide to employers and employees through the collection of
information from the inputs and process outlined in the diagram above. These include end of
financial year payment summaries, retail onboarding prefill, income tax return prefill, PAYGW
information prefill for electronic BAS.
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2.1 Processes
2.1.1 Payroll
The payroll event is described as the time when an employee is paid by their employer. An
employer is expected to use the payroll service whenever they pay their employees; this means that
the frequency aligns with the businesses natural payroll cycle. The payroll event will be utilised for
employers to support mandatory reporting of PAYG Withholding. In addition employers must report
either Super Guarantee amount or Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) amounts.
2.1.2 Commencement of new employees
The commencement of new employees is seen as part of a business HR process. The retail method
includes the ability for a new employee to provide a tax file number declaration, choice of their
nominated super fund, PAYG withholding voluntary agreement and upward variation electronically
through MyGov/ATO Online. This service provides an employer with the ability to pull the
information directly from the ATO. The wholesale method enables an employer to send a tax file
declaration directly to the ATO using their BMS.
The following forms are included in the commencement of a new employee services:


Retail Method
o tax file number (TFN) declaration (NAT 3092)
o superannuation standard choice form (NAT 13080)
o PAYG withholding – voluntary agreements (NAT 2772)
o Withholding declaration – Upward Variation Only (NAT 3093)
Wholesale Method
o tax file number (TFN) declaration (NAT 3092)
2.1.3 BAS
In STP employers will continue to utilise the current BAS process to report PAYG withholding
amounts. The ATO will be undertaking a co-design process with business to identify opportunities to
utilise STP data to streamline the BAS completion process.
2.1.4 Payment summary annual return
Through STP the payment summary annual return process is a combination of the payroll event
process and the provision of the end of financial year non-payroll data through adjustment services.
The adjustment services are currently in design and detail will be provided in a future version of this
document.
STP will allow the ATO to provide the following payment summaries on behalf of the employer:




PAYG payment summary – individual non-business (NAT 0046)
PAYG payment summary – foreign employment (NAT 73297)
PAYG payment summary – employment termination payment (NAT 70868)
PAYG payment summary – business and personal services income (NAT 72545)
o Non-persona; service income components only.
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To facilitate this, the ATO will require the reporting of data through the Australian Standard Business
Reporting framework. This data will include:


Payroll Event Data (see Business Payroll Taxonomy) as part of a business’s natural payroll
process and cycle.
Adjustment Event Data (Taxonomy in Development) to provide EOFY non payroll specific
data for the above payment summaries.
At present the following will NOT be included in STP:




PAYG payment summary – superannuation lump sum (NAT 70947)
PAYG payment summary – superannuation income stream (NAT 70987)
PAYG payment summary – withholding where ABN not quoted (NAT 3283)
Employee share schemes
2.1.5 Superannuation Reporting
The collection of superannuation contribution data via STP will enable the ATO to provide an
improved level of assurance that employers are meeting their Super Guarantee obligations.
Whilst the design supporting Superannuation Reporting is yet to be finalised, it is expected that it
will reuse the data created by employers to support Superannuation contributions sent using the
existing SuperStream standard.
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3
The STP Story
On 21st December 2015, the government announced business reporting of PAYG withholding tax
and superannuation will be simplified with the implementation of Single Touch Payroll (STP).
The STP initiative supports the Government’s Digital Transformation Agenda, designed to drive
innovation and make it easier for individuals and businesses to access government services.
Under STP, information will be reported to the ATO by employers or their service provider through
Standard Business Reporting (SBR) enabled software. This will involve the reporting of employee
payroll information to the ATO when employees are paid.
Employers will also have the option to pay their PAYG withholding and Superannuation obligations
at the same time they pay their employees.
Payment of superannuation contributions by employers will also be reported to the ATO when they
are made to the employees’ super funds.
In addition, STP will include processes associated with bringing on new employees by providing
digital services for completion of forms such as tax file number (TFN) declarations and
superannuation standard choice forms.
Single data standard / e-Commerce output
Employees
Payslip to employee
$ to employee bank account
Payroll data to ATO (incl. TFN, PAYGW)
Report super contribution payment
data to ATO
Banks
$ PAYGW payments to ATO
account (optional)
ATO
Other opportunities e.g. sharing across
other government agencies
Future
via SuperStream - report super contribution information to
superfund
The ATO is continuing to engage with employers, their service providers, the superannuation
industry, Tax Practitioners and BAS agents to help prepare for the proposed Single Touch Payroll
reporting changes. These guidelines form another significant step along this journey.
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3.1 Timing and key events

In late 2016/early 2017, a small business simulated pilot will seek to explore and confirm
benefits of STP for those employers with 19 or less employees.

From April 2017, early adopter/production testing of STP.

From 1 July 2017, STP available for employers with a certified STP solution to report on
payroll event and offer new employee commencement process. For more information on
certification see section 5.2.

From 1 July 2017, STP available for reporters to report superannuation contributions when
they are paid.

1 July 2018, employers with 20 or more employees required to use STP (subject to successful
passage of legislation).
Key Dates
Late 2016/early 2017*
Simulated Pilot
Apr 2017*
Early adopter
/production testing
Jul 2017*
STP available for
employers
Today
July 2018*
Employers with 20 or
more employees
required to use STP
Simulated pilot (<20 employees)
*Dates are indicative based on legislation being passed
Importantly, the ATO’s non-production simulation pilot establishes the groundwork for a phased and
controlled transition approach leading to 1 July 2017 and beyond for all businesses.
3.2 STP project principles

Make use of the natural payroll event and online payment channel systems for STP
Reporting.

Seek to drive positive behavioural change and good business practices rather than
compliance-driven change.

Find low or no touch impacts for employers where possible.

Ensure there are no barriers to participation regardless of business size or scenario.

Facilitate market customisation and tailoring of solutions.

Use trusted business partners to identify solutions and develop implementation approach.

Leverage existing SuperStream implementations where it makes sense and encourages
innovation.
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
Phase one provides a building block for potential future phases to minimise re-work and
enable incremental changes over time.

Start simple and iterate through gradually adding complexity.
3.3 STP benefits

Employees will be able to see their total YTD salary and wage income, PAYG withholding
amounts and super guarantee contribution amounts as they accumulate.

STP ensures all employers are participating in the PAYG withholding and Super Guarantee
systems equally and provides greater visibility over obligations.

With earlier warning, the ATO will be able to better help employers struggling to meet their
PAYG withholding and super obligations.

Employers will use their normal business processes to meet their PAYG withholding
reporting obligations as this will happen at the same time they pay their employees.

Streamlining of employee commencement processes as TFN declarations and choice of
super form can be completed either via pre-fill in myGov or through the employer’s BMS.

The pilot will explore and confirm benefits of STP for those employers with 19 or fewer
employees.
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4
Payroll
Payroll Event signifies the amount that has been paid out to employees for the services they have
done for the organization within a certain period of time. It is the combination of the financial
records of their employees' salaries, wages, allowances and deductions.
4.1 Key principles of the payroll event
The payroll event is the foundation of STP. An employer will be able to easily meet their PAYG
withholding reporting obligations as this will happen automatically when they pay their employees.
Other key principles include:

Employer-provided data is the source of truth

STP payroll reporting is aligned to the employee payment cycle

Payroll event data is made up of employer and individual employee data

Provide a new channel for employees to see their information throughout the year and
prefill their income tax returns
4.2 Who can submit payroll events?
4.2.1 Employers (self-submitting)
Employers will be able to submit payroll events to the ATO via BMS or cloud provided software.
4.2.2 Intermediaries
An intermediary is a BAS agent, tax agent or payroll provider registered with the Tax Practitioners
Board.
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4.3 Journey Map: Payroll Event Reporting Process
The following design proposal illustrates what an employer would experience when paying employees with an STPenabled solution.
Employee
My pay goes
into my
nominated
bank account
I can log into
myGov and
view my pay
information
I get my
payslip
The ATO processes the STP payroll
event at this point.
myGov and the business portal
then reflect any updates
Employer
I complete my
payroll run and
pay my staff
I create and
send payslips
to my staff
My chosen STP
solution
reports my
payroll data to
the ATO
The business portal shows
how my reported data
affects my account including
PAYGW liability
4.4 Design Features
Employer BMS or other chosen STP solution is the source of truth. The ATO will only hold
information and not aggregate.
Year to date totals are included and are required as part of a payroll event. Payment period and
payment date is also included. The business payroll taxonomy outlines the mandatory and optional
elements as well as contextualisation and groupings.
Changes and adjustment to payroll event information is typically carried out through future payroll
events but can be done through a complete payroll event file replacement (Full File Replacement)
Standard Business Reporting channels will be used to transfer data in STP.
Employers can make PAYG Withholding payments to the ATO more frequently if they choose,
through the existing payment process.
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Single Touch Payroll
5
Co-Design and Release
We will be taking a phased approach to releasing the STP information and guidelines. This will
ensure that we consult with you on each part and then collectively refine as we go.
We are also taking a flexible approach to the sequencing and release of these services. Once we’ve
completed the co-design process we will have worked with you to develop a full end to end system
that maximises the use of employers’ natural business systems.
Iterative release of STP services for consultation
The first phase will cover the payroll event service. The other services will follow as detailed in the
diagram above.
Single Touch Payroll
5.1 Software Developer Engagement Process and Publication Timelines
5.1.1 Process for release of technical documents:
The following table identifies the steps, activities and timing for the rollout for each technical
document.
Process Step
Activities to deliver release
Timing
1.
Select external review
group(s)
–
–
invitation sent to review group
identify group make-up
2.
Review
–
–
–
–
–
–
documents provided via email to review group
reaction
right level of context
is it what you expected
any surprises
right content to give feedback on
3 days
3.
Amend
–
–
develop next iteration of technical documents
if required, schedule meeting with external
reviewers to clarify comments
communicate status update
2 days
documents published to wider industry
community for comments
request feedback
general communique to wider industry group via
newsletter
Two
weeks*
Two weeks
–
4.
Publish
–
–
–
5.
Consolidate
–
design team to collate feedback and update as
required
6.
Workshop
–
–
Establish technical working group to progress and
resolve outstanding issues
communicate status update
update documents with feedback received
date to be determined after the workshop
7.
Amend
–
–
8.
Finalise draft
week starting
– publish final draft technical document
– publish via the newsletter and
softwaredevelopers.ato.gov.au
– promote publication of document at key forums.
– consider direct email to feedback providers
–
date to be determined after the workshop
One week
One week
* Due to the tight timeframes as a result of end of financial year processing, the payroll event publish
process will be extended by a further 2 weeks.
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Single Touch Payroll
5.1.2 Rolling Schedule of release of technical documents
Based on the process for release of technical documents - the timelines below portray each step and associated timeframe for completion. We
acknowledge this falls in one of the busiest times of the year and thank you in advance for your support.
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Single Touch Payroll
5.2 Software Certification
From 1 July 2017, STP available for employers with a certified STP solution to report on payroll event
and offer new employee commencement process. This certification is currently in design.
5.3 Employer’s reported data assurance
The ATO data will be constantly replaced by the submission from the employer, hence the data will
be identical. The ATO position is based on the idea that employer’s reported data is the source of
truth and will not be aggregated; making it unlikely that there will be any misalignment in data
between employer and ATO systems.
As the provided data is the source of truth, we don’t expect that there will be any need for
reconciliation between the business management software (BMS) and the ATO.
6
STP Release 1
6.1 Payroll Event Taxonomy
This document outlines message design represented within service MIG packages and ATO internal
form services.
For ease of compliance for software provider industry, the STP service will follow the same technical
rules and constraints as the current ebMS3 SBR2 channel environment. The elements within this
build are defined by the Standard Business Reporting (SBR) definition held in the Australian
Reporting Dictionary. http://dictionary.sbr.gov.au/
The contents of the payroll event taxonomy may change as a result of our industry consultation and
co-design with you.
The Business Payroll Taxonomy document identifies the data requirements for a payroll event within
the STP ecosystem. The taxonomy outlines the groupings, relationships and options of all data
elements related to the payroll event.
This document will contain columns for the following:
Heading
Definition
DATA GROUPING
SEQ
SBR TREF
Defines the group level the data element is associated to.
Sequence number - ATO STP Design Internal numbering sequence.
SBR Data Dictionary Taxonomy Reference number associated to
an element. Any elements without this reference are not available
in the SBR Data Dictionary.
SBR Data Dictionary name of the elements.
ATO business language name of the element.
Element definition as provided by the SBR Data Dictionary.
Notes whether the element is currently contained within the SBR
SBR DATA LABEL
ATO Report Label
SBR BUSINESS DEFINITION
SBR LOADED
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Single Touch Payroll
STP Service /
UI Map
Element Required
MSG Context Rules
Repeat Count
Last Modified
ATO Linked Product
Data Matching / Relation
Linking
ICP Account Processing
ATO Online
PSAR Generation
IITR Pre-Fill
Data Dictionary.
ATO internal mapping of taxonomy element to system
wireframes.
Denotes whether a field is mandatory within the taxonomy.
Defines how the element is contextualised within the message, for
ATO consumption.
Defines the number of times this element can be repeating in a
single message.
Version the element was last modified.
Lists all ATO electronic forms the element is currently associated
with, as per the SBR library.
Denotes that the element will be used for Data Matching /
Relation Linking.
Denotes that the element will be used for ICP Account Processing.
Denotes that the element will be used for ATO Online.
Denotes that the element will be used for PSAR Generation.
Denotes that the element will be used for IITR Pre-Fill.
6.1.1 Data Grouping
The business taxonomy for payroll assembles elements into the following data groupings:










Employer / Supplier Organisation: Information about the entity sending the payroll event
Entity sending payroll event. Consists of – Employer ABN, Name, Address, contact details
Employee / Payee: Information about the Person receiving the pay. Consists of – Employee
TFN, Payroll ID, Address, contact details
Payroll Run: Information about the payroll event. Consists of – Period dates, Pay date,
Transaction ID
Taxation Item: Information about tax paid. Consists of – PAYGW amount and Foreign Tax
paid
Wage Item: Information about earnings. Consists of – Gross payment amount, Lump Sum
amounts, Termination payment amounts, Labour Hire gross payment
Super Entitlement: Information regarding Super Guarantee Amounts and OTE Amounts.
Payslip: Consists of – Employee net income and reportable benefits (RFBA)
Allowance Item: Information about allowances. Consists of - taxable allowance amounts and
allowance types
Deduction Item: Information about deductions. Consists of – deduction amounts and
deduction types
Declaration: The standard ATO electronic legal declaration components, to allow electronic
signature against each payroll report submitted.
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Single Touch Payroll
6.1.2 MSG Context Rules
The Message Context Rules define how the element is contextualised in the message for ATO use.
Parent / Child Relationships
The business taxonomy uses a parent / child relationships throughout. Where an element
can be used in this way, it is outlined using the MSG Context field in the Business Taxonomy
Document and the actual relationship is provided through the Message Structure Table in
the MIG Package.
For example PE.045 - Income tax PAYGW withheld amount holds a total amount
 for Parent at the Employer level for each payroll event.
 for Child for the individual employee for each payroll event.
Period / Year to Date (YTD)
The business taxonomy also contextualises most financial elements as Period and YTD data.


For example PE.045 - Income tax PAYGW withheld amount - Child Period
Value, Child YTD Value will appear in the Message Structure Table as two
distinct elements: Income tax PAYGW withheld amount – Period; for the
Period value
Income tax PAYGW withheld amount - YTD for the year to date value.
6.2 Payroll event messaging package
The PAYEVNT.0001 contains all the necessary specifications for solution providers to build the STP
payroll event message. Governed by, and directly modelled off the STP business taxonomy, the
contents of this pack should be aligned for the intended message service. Traditionally these packs
consist of the following specification artefacts:





Package Content Note (PCN)
Message Implementation Guide (MIG)
Message Structure Tables (MST)
Validation Rules (available from External Vendor Testing Release onwards, date to be
advised)
XML Schema Definition (XSD)
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Single Touch Payroll
6.3 Areas of Consideration
1. Can you see anything missing from our payroll taxonomy?
 We know there are things missing that the ATO would like to collect such as:
o reportable employer super contributions (RESC)
o hours worked
o occupational code
 Are there any further elements that could be provided in a payroll event to reduce the
reporting burden on employers?
2. Understanding allowances in STP
 How many different types of allowances could an individual have throughout a year that
would be reported to the ATO?
 Does the type of allowance need to be reported?
3. Understanding deductions in STP
 How many different types of deductions could an individual have throughout a year that
would be reported to the ATO?
 Are these deductions reported by recipient organisations?
For example:
Deduction Type – Expense Union or Professional Association Fee
Recipient Organisation – Random Union Group LTD
Deduction Amount Period - $50.00
Deduction Amount YTD - $450.00
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Single Touch Payroll
4. Payroll Event File Replacement (Full File Replacement)
There may be times when a payroll file is transmitted to the ATO in error.
An example: the payroll office sends an incomplete version of a payroll event to the ATO.
The payroll officer completes the payroll event and marks this as a Payroll Event
Replacement File and resends to the ATO.
Scenario Steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Initial Payroll File sent to the ATO
ATO sends an acknowledgment of receipt, and error message if incorrect, with a
Business Document Government Generated Identifier back to the BMS.
BMS Stores the Business Document Government Generated Identifier against the
payroll event.
Once completed the payroll event file is marked as a replacement and the Business
Document Government Generated Identifier is attached to the new payroll event file
and resent to the ATO.
The replacement file MUST be received before the next payroll event. Upon receipt
the ATO backend system will cancel the previous payroll event file and change it with
the replacement file.
Note that this service is intended as a full file replacement and not used for corrections to a
payroll event
Is this service required for single touch payroll?
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Single Touch Payroll
7
Version Control
Version
Date
Author
Summary of Changes
1.0
17.06.16
Sean Simmons
Version 1.0
Released to Software Developer Closed
Group for review.
1.1
28.06.2016
Sean Simmons
Inclusion of Feedback from Closed Group
1.2
29.06.2016
Kim McCall/Sean
Simmons
Internal Feedback Review
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