Did You Know this ?

I attended a session with 300 accountants and only one person knew these issues. They were from the ATO. They mentioned these things :

1. 2019 Tax. No PAYG Summary
Employers no longer have to issue paper PAYG sumamries if they use Single Touch Payroll. The payroll data will be prefilled by the ATO. BUT only after the employer closes off the year and confirms payroll is final with the ATO. Many (but not all) employers will issue a PAYG summary of convenience.

Anyone planning a early lodgement will find a issue. The ATO may NOT PROCESS a lodgement until the employer prefill is valid. Anti-fraud.

Smaller employers not yet using STP must issue paper copies like in the past. This will be the final year.

STP is a fatal blow to employers who dont pay super. The ATO can monitor real time non-compliance.

Issue : Early lodgers may have lodgements refused or delayed by many weeks when data isnt validated. Tax agents may be unable to lodge until a PAYG Summary is validated.

2. Deduction D1 - D15
In the past the ATO received the total for each item only. For the 2019 year every bit of info entered into each field will be transmitted to the ATO eg a list of donation or work related deductions etc.

2019 will be a year when a far higher review will be applied to taxpayers claiming deductions.

Taxpayers and tax agents will receive a pre-lodgement report that indicates each taxpayers variance (+/-) from average claims for their age, occupation and salary range for every deduction type. I will now state the obvious..... Taxpayers above average may need to consider substantiation as they pose a higher risk of audit / review.

3. From 1 July 2019 Deductions for wages, salary, bonuses etc may be denied for taxpayers who pay people unless they use Single Touch Payroll AND the payments are subject to withholding tax at the point of payment (ie that day).

This was announced in the last budget and is awaiting Royal Asset after being approved in parliament last week.

 

Time to consider audit insurance or disregard it if you're fastitious/diligent with record keeping?

 

How will an employee know when they can lodge their tax returns (ie when the payroll has been finalised?)

 

I asked that same question. The answer had me stumped but also made sense.

Generally speaking if the employer issues you a PAYG summary (which is why many will continue to do so) its a sign the STP matters are finalised. Employers of 20+ staff should be in this group. However if they are non-STP through non-compliance or other issues how will anyone know ? And if they dont issue any PAYG summary its common for a employee portal to include messaging or a communication regarding the year end being finalised.

This is why most employers will issue PAYG summaries as a way to communicate with employers. But there are no guarantees. Centrelink havent issued PAYG summaries to pensioners for a few years.

Unlike past years when a employer finalises the PAYG summary it updates the ATO in real time. In the past the process took several days including cluncky data files uploaded or posted to the ATO. The ATO will use that as a test to determine if they should allow the return to be refused, finalised or held. Same with private health insurance. Employees who answer YES to the private health insurance question must provide additional information only when the health fund has sent it and it will prefill in real time after receipt. Most do that within days of 30 June. Last year one fund took 3+ weeks. (HCF)

The 14th July is the date by which all employers are expected to have issued a PAYG summary to arms length employees.

 

299 accountants not keeping up to date. Concerning.

Thats been out there for a while now.

Btw new ato portal is amazing. The ATO has done a wonderful job. All our accountants love it.

 

Yes agree. Its very modefn age. More jobs lost at the ato?