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The functions described on this page are available in AccountRight 2018.2. Get the latest version

Before you can report payroll and super information to the ATO, you need to assign an ATO reporting category to your payroll categories. This includes wages, allowances, deductions and superannuation categories. The ATO category indicates the type of payment you're reporting (is it a gross wage amount or an allowance?)

While it's similar to how categories were assigned to payment summary fields, there are 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.

Which ATO reporting category should I assign? We'd love nothing more than to answer this question for you. But every business, award and employee agreement is unique, and so are the names you give to your categories.

We've provided general information below to guide you on what to assign. If you're still not sure of what's appropriate for you business, talk to your accounting advisor or the ATO. You can also refer to the ATO website for more information.

To assign ATO reporting categories
  1. Go to the  Payroll command centre and select Payroll Categories. A list of your Wages categories appears.

    payroll category ATO reporting category to be assigned

  2. Click a category to open it. The ATO Reporting Category column shows the category assigned.
  3. Select the appropriate category from the ATO Reporting Category list.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Repeat for all wage payroll categories (see Wages info below for more info).
  6. Select the Superannuation tab and repeat the steps to assign categories (see Superannuation info below for more info).
  7. Repeat for all categories in the Deductions and Tax tabs (see below for more info).

 

Learn about the ATO reporting category types

 

Wages
New ATO reporting categoryOld Payment Summary field nameMore information
Gross PaymentsGross Payments

Include all payroll categories you use for paying salary and wages. This includes categories for:

  • holiday pay
  • sick pay
  • overtime
  • bonuses
  • commissions.

There are more categories and some exceptions to these. See the ATO website for more information.

Note that gross payments are reduced automatically by before-tax deductions such as salary sacrifice superannuation.

Allowance - Car
Allowance - Transport
Allowance - Travel
Allowance - Meals
Allowance - Laundry
Allowance - Other

Allowances 1 through to 9

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.

Withholding for allowances (ATO website)

Lump Sum A - Termination
Lump Sum A - Redundancy
Lump Sum B
Lump Sum D
Lump Sum E

Lump Sum Payments A (Termination)
Lump Sum Payments A (Redundancy)
Lump Sum Payments B
Lump Sum Payments D
Lump Sum Payments E (Accrued in 2016-2017)
Lump Sum Payments E (Accrued in 2015-2016)
Lump Sum Payments E (Accrued prior to 1/7/2015)

 

CDEP Payments

CDEP Salary or Wages

 
Exempt Foreign IncomeExempt Foreign Income 

ETP - Taxable component
ETP - Tax free component

ETP - Taxable component
ETP - Tax free component
 
Superannuation

The ATO Reporting Category is automatically assigned (and can't be changed) for superannuation categories set up with the following Contribution Types :

  • Superannuation Guarantee (expense)
  • Employee Additional (deduction)
  • Redundancy (expense)
  • Spouse (deduction)

SGC category with locked ATO reporting category highlighted

New ATO reporting categoryOld Payment Summary field nameMore 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 (RESC)Step 5 in the Payment summary assistant

Use this to assign superannuation categories which handle 'reportable' superannuation payments (as classified by the ATO guidelines).

Only available for contribution types: Employer Additional (expense), and Salary Sacrifice (deduction).

Did you previoulsly report salary sacrifice amounts on payment summaries?

You don't need to assign the Gross wages category to salary sacrifice amounts. When reporting payroll amounts using Single Touch Payroll, gross wage amounts are reduced automatically by deduction amounts that are marked as a before-tax deductions. This includes salary sacrifice superannuation deductions.

Deductions
New ATO reporting categoryOld Payment Summary field nameMore information

Deduction - Work Place Giving

Work Place Giving 1
Work Place Giving 2
Work Place Giving 3

 

Deduction - Union/Professional Assoc Fees

Deduction 1 - Union Fees
Deduction 2 - Prof Assoc

 

Any other deductions, including salary sacrifice (exempt from FBT) are Not Reportable.

Did you previoulsly report salary sacrifice amounts on payment summaries?

You don't need to assign the Gross wages category to salary sacrifice amounts. When reporting payroll amounts using Single Touch Payroll, gross wage amounts are reduced automatically by deduction amounts that are marked as a before-tax deductions. This includes salary sacrifice superannuation deductions.

 

Taxes

The ATO Reporting Category is automatically assigned (and can't be changed) for the PAYG Withholding payroll category.

Payroll Category Liust window showing ATO reporting category set to PAYG withholding

New ATO reporting categoryOld Payment Summary field nameMore information

PAYG Withholding

Total Tax Withheld

This is automatically assigned and can't be changed.

In some cases, the ATO Reporting Category is not automatically assigned to the PAYG Withholding payroll category and not editable, usually for customers who've upgraded from AccountRight v19. MYOB runs an overnight script that rectifies this, so check the ATO Reporting Category the next day. If it's still not assigned to the PAYG Withholding payroll category, please contact support. This issue will be fixed in a future release.

 

 

  Assigning ATO reporting categories FAQs


How do I assign salary sacrifice superannuation?

When reporting payroll amounts using Single Touch Payroll, gross wage amounts are reduced automatically by deduction amounts that are marked as a before-tax deductions. This includes salary sacrifice superannuation deductions. It doesn’t matter which ATO category a deduction is assigned to (including the Not reportable category).

Previously, to reduce taxable gross amount on payment summaries, you needed to assign the relevant payroll category (for example, salary sacrifice) to gross payments. You don't need to do this for single touch payroll reporting.

What category should I assign to infrequent used payroll categories?

It doesn't matter how often you use a payroll category, if it needs to be reported to the ATO, you need to assign a category.

If you're not sure what reporting category to assign, talk to your accounting advisor or the ATO. You can also refer to the ATO website for more information. Note that although the ATO's info on this page applies to payment summaries, it's follows the same rules for ATO reporting categories. We'll update this link when more information becomes available.