Before you can report payroll and super information to the ATO, you need to assign an ATO reporting category to each of your pay items. The ATO reporting category indicates the type of payment you're reporting (is it a gross wage amount or an allowance?).
While it's similar to how pay items were assigned to payment summary fields, there are some important differences. For example, some ATO reporting categories have been renamed and you now need to report superannuation amounts.
Below is a summary of the new ATO reporting categories. To help you assign the right category, we've included a comparison to the previous payment summary reporting fields.
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Need help assigning ATO reporting categories?
Note that we can only provide general information. If you're unsure of what's appropriate for you, we recommend talking to your advisor or the ATO. You can also see the ATO guidelinesfor more information.
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To assign ATO reporting categories
From the Payroll menu choose Pay items.
Click the ellipses button (...) for the pay item and choose Edit.
From the ATO reporting category list, choose the appropriate category.
Click Save.
Repeat for all pay items.
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Don't forget to assign categories to your superannuation!
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Pay items
Earnings and deductions
New ATO reporting category
Old Payment Summary field name
More information
Gross Payments
Step 3, Assign earnings and deductions
Gross
Allowance - Car Allowance - Transport Allowance - Travel Allowance - Meals Allowance - Laundry Allowance - Other
Step 3, Assign earnings and deductions
Allowance
Certain types of allowances and deductions need to be itemised as they were on Payment Summaries (like the type of allowance).
However, for Single Touch Payroll reporting, each item needs to be grouped and reported using a specific category. Amounts in these payroll categories may be used to prefill your employees' tax returns.
Lump Sum A - Termination Lump Sum A - Redundancy Lump Sum B Lump Sum D Lump Sum E
Step 5, Enter other income items
Lump Sum A–Redundancy payment
Lump Sum A–Termination payment
Lump sum B - Unused long service leave accrued before 16/08/1978
Accrued in 2016 - 2017
Accrued prior to 01/07/2016
CDEP Payments
Step 5, Enter other income items
Community development employment projects (CDEP) payments
Exempt Foreign Income
Step 5, Enter other income items
Exempt foreign employment income
ETP coming soon. You'll need to report any ETPs using a paper form from the ATO.
Superannuation
New ATO reporting category
Old Payment Summary field name
More information
Superannuation Guarantee
New
This is the first time employers have been required to report this information to the ATO. It's requried to check that employee super funds are receiving the correct amounts.
Reportable Employer Super Contributions
Step 3, Assign earnings and deductions
Deductions, E
Other income items
New ATO reporting category
Old Payment Summary field name
More information
Deduction - Work Place Giving
Workplace giving
Deduction - Union/Professional Assoc Fees
Union / Professional association fees
PAYG Withholding
Step 4, Check assignments are correct
Total tax withheld
Any other deductions, including salary sacrifice (exempt from FBT) are Not Reportable.
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