SINGLE TOUCH PAYROLL – CLOSELY HELD PAYEES
Small employers (19 or fewer payees) are exempt from reporting amounts paid to closely held payees through Single Touch Payroll (STP) until 30 June 2021. You don’t need to apply for this exemption.
From 1 July 2021, amounts paid to closely held payees will need to be reported through STP. If you’re a small employer you can report these amounts on or before each payday, or you can choose to report this information quarterly.
If you have any other payees (also known as arm’s length employees) they must be reported on or before each payday.
Single Touch Payroll reporting
A closely held payee is an individual directly related to the entity from which they receive payments.
For example:
- family members of a family business
- directors or shareholders of a company
- beneficiaries of a trust.
You must continue to report information about all of your other employees (known as arm’s length employees) via STP on or before each payday (the statutory due date).
If you only have closely held payees, you are not required to start STP reporting until 1 July 2021. You do not need to tell us that you only have closely held payees.
How to report amounts paid to your closely held payees?
From 1 July 2021, amounts paid to closely held payees can be reported through STP in any of the following ways:
- Report actual payments on or before the date of payment – whenever you make a payment to a closely held payee, report the information on or before each pay event.
- Report actual payments quarterly – report your actual payments to closely held payees quarterly. Each quarter, when your activity statement is due, report all payments made in that quarter.
- Report a reasonable estimate quarterly – report amounts equal to or greater than a percentage of gross payments and tax withheld from the latest year, across each quarter.
For information, advice and support contact our expert team.