FILE REF: [FILE NO.]
TITLE:
Single Touch Payroll Working Group meeting
VENUE:
DATE OF
MEETING:
Teleconference
Date: Friday 24 July 2015
Time: 10.00am to 11.00am (AEST)
CHAIR:
Michael Gleeson (ATO)
FACILITATOR:
Martin Mane (ATO)
CONTACT:
Kate French
CONTACT PHONE:
02 4923 1134
0439 422 952
NEXT MEETING:
Teleconference 31 July 2015
KEY MESSAGES
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The ATO is working with treasury in looking to firm up timing of a government
decision with details of the pilot including the scope and how it would run
Treasury and gov – timing of when pilot begins needs to be considered – 1 July 16 –
developers and ATO may do be ready to start
If clearer info comes from treasury we will get it out to you
Taxonomy and data definitions, want to get something out to this group
Aiming for a mid-August workshop with SuperStream input in how pilot would run –
more information on this will be sent next week.
Detailed design for drop 1 and some for drop 2 – onboarding screen design for ATO
online – will provide screen shots of what we have designed
Employers will have an obligation to report super payments to the ATO – originally
this was embedded within payroll reporting however the move away from real time
event based payments mean another solution to capture this info is required
The current contributions transaction report is a super stream B2B ie employer to
super fund report - not clear if ATO can leverage off this report – legally or otherwise
so a separate report is being considered
A separate report means multiple touch rather than single touch, also super reporting
and payments can be from accounting software, third parties and clearing houses not
necessarily payroll software.
Need clarification and definition of what confirmation of a superannuation payment is,
keep simple if possible ie leverage off the system that is in place – SuperStream, can
the funds provide this detail as they are the final source of what has been applied to
member accounts
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
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Need to explore practical implications – user experience – testing solutions an
employer could use eg where there are third party payments
ATO trending toward real time reporting for SMSF investment data - is there a similar
direction possible for contributions information
Discussion around error reporting, what if super stream has errors and ATO does not
or visa versa, many errors occur because of closed accounts but there are others as
fund are extending business rules and introducing proprietary formats. There will be
considerable complexity and issues if trying to understand and keep in sync all the
types of error and messages, better to look at the basic outcome required and design
for that ie what has actually been credited to a members account.
ATO needs to consider change management as major changes to business
processes for employers will be required. Not all payroll staff are skilled, requires
investment by business in these staff as they will need to get payroll more accurate
up front rather than rely on end of year processes. How the client chooses to use
software is outside the developers control – some employers are contemptuous of
compliance, but there is an opportunity to improve business practices
ATO needs to start doing the change management side now – SWD need to
understand what is and will be occurring so they can guide the compliance changes
and communications to business
ACTION ITEMS to be added to and updated
ID
Action item
Status Update
Open items
1
2
5
6
7
Provide a roadmap of known items of change for
the ATO to include future potential STP scope,
SuperStream milestones, changes to myGov/ATO
Online etc.
Advise who is liable where there is a fraudulent log
on to myGov and e.g. Super Choice nomination is
made to an SMSF.
Advise the legal position on what action is required
where data goes to the wrong employer.
Raise software developer community view with
Treasury that greater value can be provided to
businesses with a change in secrecy provisions. E.g.
it would provide greater value if, in wholesale
onboarding, employee relationship with a
particular superfund could be validated.
Raise software developer community view of
benefit of broadening use of myGov credential
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
In progress. Seeking latest pack developed for Board
of Taxation
In progress.
Pending advice.
In progress. Exploring process requirements to deal
with situations where data is sent to and accepted
by the incorrect employer.
In progress. View to change secrecy provisions have
been raised with Treasury. Awaiting feedback.
In progress. Discussions have commenced within the
ATO to consider the user experience and security.
ID
Action item
Status Update
with DTO.
9
Work through issues associated with RFBA and
bring options back to working group.
10
Define what constitutes the need to report to the
ATO and advise working group. Is it a withholding
event? Would Super contribution only be
reported? What if there is salary sacrifice amount
that impacts taxable income?
Completed items
3
Advise the electronic record keeping requirements
for TFN Dec.
4
Advise whether there is any possible situation
where data changed by employer will update ATOheld data – formal response based on law
required.
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
In progress. Current view is that an additional
service will be required to allow reporting of RFBA
amounts outside of a normal payroll event.
In progress. The ATO aims to realise an
enhancement to Australian payroll accounting
systems. New technologies exist to support frequent
direct reporting and tax transparency between the
ATO and the employer community. The STP program
intends to establish a B2G reporting requirement
surrounding the following liabilities:
1 – Employee PAYGW liability derived from the
salary payments made by an entity to their staff
2 – ATO Super have defined a requirement to have
also have both Super entitlement information
reported to the ATO on event basis.
3 – ATO Super further intends to collect
confirmation of Super payments from employers,
driven by the actual payment event to a super fund.
The correlation between items 2 and 3 will support
ATO Super to define a policy around the
implementation of SGC.
4 – Further payroll items that cannot be deemed
frequently by event basis like RFBA and associated
Salary Sacrifice calculations have been drawn out
from the proposed STP payroll event.
5 - A purpose built independent service “STP
Payment Summary Update” Event will need to be
developed to ensure the capture of payroll related
information that falls out of the norm.
Completed. Depends on law change and what status
the ATO Online on-boarding form takes. If it replaces
‘a TFN declaration given to a payer’, then a payer
should not need to keep a record of it as they won’t
ever have been given a TFN declaration to retain.
Otherwise, the existing law applies and a payer must
retain the declaration until the second 1 July after
the day on which the declaration ceases to have
effect.
Completed. The current design does not support any
situation where the updating of employee-related
data by an employer in their BMS updates ATO-held
information about that employee e.g. changing their
address/name etc.
ID
Action item
Status Update
8
Check whether specifics of offset details are
currently on variation forms
11
Arrange meeting with software providers who
allow amendments to payroll events e.g. where it
is possible to reverse/delete. Participants to be
identified by ABSIA.
Find out how many amended payment summaries
the ATO receives each year.
Explore options for services that can be provided
to enable employers to reconcile ATO.
Completed. NAT 3092 Tax file number declaration
and NAT 3093 Withholding declaration reviewed for
specific offset variation labels. 11 new elements
were extrapolated and included into the STP onboarding taxonomy to include upward, downward
and seniors pensioners variation offsets.
Completed. Scheduled for 9 July 2015. Outcomes
currently being documented.
12
13
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
Completed. In 2014 there were 268,245 payment
summaries amended by payers – representing ~2%
Completed. Functionality to enable employers to
reconcile information held by the ATO with that in
their software is currently being designed.