It is always a rush to the end of the financial year and to help you, we have a few reminders so you don’t overlook any tasks.
Taxable payments reporting
Has your business made payments during the year to contractors for services? Is your business in one of the sectors that is required to report these payments? If so, this information must be reported to the ATO on the Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) by 28 August 2019. It you’re not sure if your business is required to report this information, the ATO website has a list.
Run a report now in your accounting software to double check that all payments are correctly recorded before you submit your TPAR to the ATO.
PAYG Payment Summaries
This is the last year that businesses will be providing payment summaries to employees. If your business has not yet moved over to STP (Single Touch Payment), you will need to provide:
- A payment summary to all employees even if you were not required to withhold any tax stating what each employee received in wages or salary, the payroll taxes collected from their pay, and some superannuation contributions made on their behalf.
- A payment summary report to the ATO, stating how much how much the business had paid in salary or wages, the PAYG withheld, and some superannuation contributions they’d made.
If your business has been using STP throughout the financial year, you may be exempt from providing individual payment summaries and a payment summary report.
Expenses and Deductions
Make sure you know you know what expenses the ATO allows your business to write-off and that all the expenses and GST costs have been recorded correctly. Don’t forget to include any last minute purchases or capital expenses made to benefit from instant asset write off.
For small businesses getting this information correct can be time consuming but will be worth the effort. Get it wrong and your business could be in trouble with the ATO. Get it right and your business could be paying less tax or even get a refund.
Housekeeping
And finally, if you are using an external accountant or Tax Agent, clean up your files before you send them. Good record keeping will save you money and time with your accountant.