Single Touch Payroll (STP) 108-22070738

Single Touch Payroll (STP) is an Australian Government initiative where employers report payroll information via STP enabled software to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) each time employees are paid. This STP reported payroll information is known as a pay event. It can occur:

• weekly
• fortnightly
• monthly, or
• other frequencies

Reporting of pay events by employers using disaggregated Phase 2 data became mandatory from 1 January 2022. From 31 August 2023, most employers have onboarded and are reporting Phase 2 payroll information through STP. This means customers may have all, some or none of their employment details pre-filled for them when reporting.

Services Australia can only access the relevant payroll data of mutual clients required to administer the Social Security system. The agency accesses and prepares the required data from year to date figures in near real time. Where available, STP data will pre-fill in customer reporting tools and can be viewed by Service Officers through Process Direct only. The Earnings and Reporting Workflow in Process Direct must be used to process reports and to view and update past periods.

Customer obligations

Customers are still responsible for checking their available STP income details against their payslip when they report. Customers must review the pre-filled data and make changes (adjust and/or add details), if needed. When the customer is satisfied with the employment details, they must confirm the data. The confirmed STP data then shows in the reporting task. The customer can then:

• manually add any other employment income details for themselves and their partner, and
• add hours worked, if needed (hours are not reported in STP data)

The STP service simplifies the reporting of employment details, but does not replace a customer's obligation to report all their circumstances accurately.

Customers cannot opt out of pre-filling of STP data.

Services Australia can access the STP data of customers who are a mutual client of the ATO and Services Australia. The data can include, but not limited to:

• employer name and Australian Business Number (ABN)/Withholding Payer Number (WPN)
• employment commencement date
• employment status (full time, part time or casual)
• salary and wages
• allowances
• bonuses and commission
• voluntary superannuation deductions
• salary sacrifice deductions
• reportable fringe benefits
• workers compensation
• leave and redundancy payments
• employment cessation details

STP data does not include the:

• hours worked by the customer in the entitlement period. The customer must report the number of hours worked by themself and their partner (if applicable), if required for their income support payment. See Recording and correcting employment income details
• number of days relevant to paid leave and lump sum components reported via STP. The number of days is provided by the customer
• STP data of the partner. The customer must manually add any gross income paid to their partner in the entitlement period if required

The safety of customers’ information is Services Australia's first priority.

Services Australia will always tell customers what it is collecting, why and who it will be shared with. The Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) regulates how government agencies and some other organisations handle personal information.

Services Australia will only get the information needed, and customers can update their information if it’s incorrect.

Customers can find out more about privacy on the Services Australia website.

Where STP data pre-fills in a customer’s report, it is a result of an identity match and then multiple checks by the ATO and Services Australia to ensure data integrity. STP data does not pre-fill where there is missing data or inconsistencies.

This gives a high level of confidence that the pre-filled STP details are accurate and for the right person.

When an STP employer reports employment income data for an employee who is on an income support payment (ISP), service profiling will place them on 2 weekly statement reporting. See Process for support with customer enquiries.

Service profiling can also take some customers off reporting. Customers with no mutual obligation requirements and where the customer and partner have no other employment income, will be taken off reporting or reverted back to their prior reporting requirements:

• 6 fortnights after confirming their STP cessation details including the cessation date, or
• if there are no STP cessation details, after having no STP pay events for 6 consecutive fortnights

If customers are automatically taken off reporting for the above reasons, or manually by a Service Officer and a later STP pay event is available, the customer will be placed back on 2 weekly statement reporting. See Process for more details.

When customers report through online channels and STP data is available, their employment details will pre-fill in the STP confirmation service. This means the online reporting will be a 2 step process.

The customer must review the pre-filled information, make any required changes and then confirm the STP Declaration by selecting Submit and continue. The customer will then enter the Report employment income (REI) service to complete their reporting task. See Process for more details.

If there is no STP data available at the time of reporting, the customer will enter directly into the Report employment income (REI) service and can add any employment income details, including partner income (if applicable), and hours worked, if needed.

STP data may be available to customers reporting via the Integrated Voice Response (IVR) channel.

The full range of functions available to customers reporting with STP data in online channels is not available for customers reporting via IVR. This may result in a hand off to a Service Officer, where a customer needs to adjust or add certain STP income components in their entitlement period.

Customers may be presented with STP employer details in an online claim or when they report. When a customer claims an income support payment, the name and ABN/WPN of any STP employers who have reported payroll details in the previous 8 weeks will be displayed. Current customers will be presented with STP employer data when they report.

• Employer details presented to the customer during a claim or when reporting will include: employer/organisation’s name
• ABN/WPN

Customers are shown other trading names associated with the ABN/WPN to assist them to recognise the STP employer’s details. The customer must review and either confirm or reject that they are working for the STP employer.

Where the customer confirms they are working for the employer, the STP employer’s details can be linked with an existing employer from their record or have a new employer entry created.

If the customer advises they do not work for the employer, Service Officers must ask further questions to understand the relationship between the customer and the STP employer. See Process for more details.

When a customer confirms an STP employer, STP pay events paid in the customer’s entitlement period may pre-fill for the customer to check and confirm or change.

There may be cases where the pre-filled STP data does not match the gross amount that was paid in a customer’s reporting period. Pay event data may include more than one type of income component. Customers can check their payslip if they are unsure about the pre-filled STP details. They can adjust the information if it is incorrect and add any additional pay components that may not have been pre-filled for that pay event. See Processing STP data

When STP data is confirmed and accepted by the customer, it is automatically loaded onto the appropriate screens on the customer’s record.

Services Australia uses the STP data from pay events to calculate a Pay Per Period (PayPP) amount.

This compares the gross YTD (Year to Date) figure of all income components from the previous Pay Event with that of the current Pay Event. The difference between these amounts is the PayPP amount and is shown on the STP Employer Wage Items (EMGI) screen as the Gross STP Income.

When presented with pre-filled STP data, customers must review and either confirm or change the PayPP details before the system applies the amounts to the record. Assessable PayPP amounts that are confirmed are used to calculate a customer’s entitlement in the reporting period and are identified in the Used in PayPP Calculation field with Yes.

For more details about the different types of income components, see Assessment of employment income for Centrelink payments.

Income components that are assessable and included in the PayPP calculation show to customers when they are reporting through their Centrelink online account or the Centrelink Express Plus mobile app. Confirmed STP Income components that are not assessed as employment income are identified in the Used in PayPP Calculation field with No. See Resources to view which allowances are assessable.

When a customer needs to report earlier than their usual reporting day due to a public holiday or overseas departure, any available STP data will pre-fill. If the employer has not yet run their payroll, the customer must manually add employment income that they expect to be paid in the full reporting period. This is no different to the process for customers reporting early for non-STP employers.

If STP data becomes available to Services Australia after the relevant reporting period is complete, it does not pre-fill in a later reporting period for the customer to check.

Only STP pay events with a date paid in the relevant reporting period will pre-fill for customers.

See Payment and reporting arrangements over national public holiday periods. See Resources for an example.

STP employers can change the STP data reported to the ATO at any time. A change can be submitted for any STP pay event paid in the current or in a previous financial year.

Change to STP data in the current financial year

Where an STP employer submits changes to the ATO for a pay event paid in the current Centrelink entitlement period before the customer reports, the customer will see the corrected STP data pre-fill when they report.

Where an STP employer submits changes to the ATO for a pay event paid in a completed entitlement period, the customer will notice a discrepancy in the STP data when they next report. This is because the adjusted Year to Date figure, has a ripple effect on the following YTD amounts reported for the subsequent pay events paid.

Customers must correct the calculated PayPP Amount (gross STP income) pre-filled to match their payslip, if needed.

Change to STP data for a previous financial year

Correction of STP payroll data reported by an STP employer may be necessary after a payment summary has been finalised.

Updates to the employee’s payment summary will automatically update the customer’s details in ATO myTax. The change may also impact the gross income reported in respect to the customer’s and/or their partner’s income support payment. In these cases the correction of the pay event by a Service Officer will automatically update the customer’s Services Australia payment summary in ATO myTax, due to the arrears or debt calculated.

No action is required by Services Australia staff to issue updated payment summaries.

Customers are not able to make corrections to confirmed STP data through self service channels.

If any confirmed amounts need to be updated, evidence must be provided before corrections can be made by Service Officers.

Corrections to STP data must be made on EMGI using Update Past Periods in the Earnings and Reporting workflow in Process Direct. Do not manually make any updates directly on EAPP or IMPS. See Process for details and Recording and correcting employment income details for coding instructions.

When a current customer ceases work with an STP employer, cessation data may pre-fill in the reporting task and include:

• the date they stopped work
• the reason they stopped work
• any unused leave and/or a redundancy payment paid

Customers will be asked to give an explanation when:

• they are subject to mutual obligation requirements during statement reporting
• STP cessation data is pre-filled, and
• the STP employer advises the cessation reason is dismissal or voluntary

An unemployment failure must be generated for PST-skilled Service Officers to investigate.

When unused leave and/or redundancy payments are reported with cessation data, the customer is asked to give the amount of days the leave covers or their average weekly wage, to determine the duration of any potential Income Maintenance Period (IMP). Service Officers must ensure that the leave period is reasonable. See Process - Table 4, Item 23.

STP employers include an employee’s employment status (for example, full time, part time or casual) when reporting employment details to the ATO. This data is available to Services Australia but is not mapped to the record or used to make decisions about a customer’s ongoing qualification for payment.

Customers may have Employed full-time - Yes pre-filled with the STP employment details, for the first and second time it is reported by their employer. Customers can edit the full time employment status, if needed. See Process for more details.

Worker’s compensation payments paid by an STP employer, pre-fill as Paid leave - worker’s compensation.

The system will check the Compensation Management Summary (CMS) screen for a previous assessment by the Compensation Recovery Team (CRT). Where there is an active compensation claim with the same employer/ABN coded on CMS, the amounts reported through STP will still pre-fill but not be applied to the record when confirmed. The STP Paid Leave - worker’s compensation component will be marked as ‘Not assessable’ in online services and will show as not included in the PayPP calculation on EMGI.

Where there has not been a previous assessment of the worker’s compensation, the pre-filled compensation amount will automatically load onto the EAPP screen for at least 2 fortnights until the compensation details have been coded on CMS. The customer will need to complete a MOD C - Compensation Details form. This can be completed verbally during the customer contact, or via a paper form. Customers reporting through their Centrelink online account or Express Plus Centrelink mobile app will have an online task created to submit a MOD C.

STP interventions aim to prevent underpayments and overpayments for customers with early education on correct reporting of employment details.

Compliance officers manage intervention activities that are triggered when customers make certain variations to their STP data.

There are 7 STP intervention triggers that may be generated where a customer:

• rejects an STP employer twice
• varies first income for a STP employer
• varies income down in two consecutive fortnights by more than $299
• varies income down in two non-consecutive fortnights across 6 months by more than $299  
• manually declares income however the Single Touch Payroll data varies by more than $299
• is receiving Disability Support Pension or Carer Payment and confirms full-time ongoing status (carer customer is not receiving ex-wife pension (XWP))
• is receiving Disability Support Pension or Carer Payment and rejects full-time ongoing status in two consecutive fortnights