Whilst it is being reported that many businesses are not ready for Single Touch Payroll (STP), (one report suggests that 70% of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) are not ready), the employees of businesses that are operating STP face some changes.

As a result of the introduction of STP, taxpayers may need a myGov account in order to get the payment summary details they need to complete their 2019 tax returns.

Employers need to let employees know if they won’t be giving them a payment summary this year.

TIP: This major change for 2019 will see many taxpayers needing to set up a myGov account and link it to the ATO. This is not necessarily a straightforward process. If taxpayers have a myGov account already linked to other services such as Centrelink or Medicare, adding the ATO can be problematic. For example, the name on each account must match exactly – the ATO is likely to have a taxpayer’s full name whereas a Centrelink account may only have first and last name. This may prevent the ATO from being added to a taxpayer’s myGov account. The situation can be rectified but may require a trip to a Centrelink office.