We are pleased to announce an update to Single Touch Payroll Phase 2 that will improve the way income streams for working holiday makers and seasonal workers are reported to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in Attache 23.1. This update will make it easier for businesses to comply with their reporting requirements while ensuring that working holiday makers and seasonal workers are accurately and fairly compensated.
The key changes for Working Holiday Makers
Addition of new field - Income Stream:
The new Income Stream field becomes available in Attaché version 23.1, from the Payroll, Masterfiles, Employee Details, Maintain, Tax tab. For more information, see: Single Touch Payroll Phase 2 changes with Income Stream field in Employee Masterfiles.
Additional Checkbox in Payroll Options
There is an additional Checkbox in Payroll Options for Working Holiday Maker Registered WHM Tax Registered - (ticked) or Unregistered (un-ticked).
📌 Note: the default setting is Unregistered.
This checkbox needs to be ticked in order for The WHM setups to apply correctly in the Employee Masterfile. See: Attaché Payroll: Set up Working Holiday Makers (Backpacker).
Modification of the tax scales assigned to working holiday makers
Working Holiday Maker Registered = Tax Scale WHM.
Working Holiday Maker Unregistered =Tax Scale 3, or Tax Scale 4N if no valid TFN number has been provided.
Working Holiday Maker Foreign Resident = Tax Scale 3, or Tax Scale 4N if no valid TFN number has been provided.
The key changes for Seasonal Workers
An additional Tax Scale Code required for Seasonal Worker Program: The new tax scale must be set to SWP under Setups, Payroll, Tax Scales, Maintain.
Seasonal Worker Program Setup (SWP): A seasonal Worker employee should be setup similar to the screenshot below.
Updates for WHM and SWP in Attache online/STP2: Updated reporting requirements for payments made to working holiday makers and seasonal workers will be completed in our STP2 Online Deployments before the end of financial year.
Employment status for working holiday makers and seasonal workers
Remember to use the Casual Employment Status for both types of workers in the Pay Details page of the Masterfile. The Seasonal selection should not be used as it currently will cause errors in STP.
The impact on working holiday makers or seasonal worker employees
If you employ working holiday makers or seasonal workers, you will need to ensure that you are using the correct tax codes when reporting their income streams to the ATO. This information will need to be included in your STP report each time you run payroll for your employees. The Instruction steps are as follows:
Update your payroll software to ensure that it includes the new tax codes and reporting fields for working holiday makers and seasonal workers.
When running payroll for these employees, make sure to use the correct tax codes and enter all relevant details in the new reporting fields.
Check that your STP report includes all necessary information for each working holiday maker and seasonal worker you employ.
Speak to your Attaché consultant if you use Keystroke File Import (KFI) as the Employee Masterfile, Tax tab now has an additional field required on standard KFI's as per step 1 above.