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vaccinations and the workplace

Vaccinations and the Workplace

Vaccinations and the Workplace

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has released guidance for employers on vaccinations and the workplace.

Currently, there are no laws in place that allow employers to order existing employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The Australian Government policy is that vaccinations are voluntary. Each state and territory government is responsible for implementing vaccination plans.

There are some circumstances in which an employer may require existing or potential employees to be vaccinated, but most employers cannot enforce vaccinations. If there are state or territory laws that provide specific orders requiring vaccination of certain workers, then employers and employees must comply. However, the FWO states that no such orders exist right now.

Employers need to check Fair Work Act workplace protections and discrimination protections before making changes to any employment agreements to require vaccinations. Employers should also discuss any proposed changes to agreements with employees, including options for implementation and safe work practices.

The Fair Work Ombudsman COVID-19 Vaccinations & the workplace webpage has detailed information explaining rules about many aspects of vaccinations in the workplace. Visit the webpage to get details on when an employee can refuse, asking for evidence of vaccination, disciplinary action and lawful directions.

The Department of Health has a great tool to check eligibility for priority vaccinations for high-risk workers such as emergency services, border services, frontline healthcare or aged care and disability workers.

Safe Work Australia provides industry-specific information, including risk assessment and worker consultations. An employer has a duty to eliminate or minimise the risk of exposure in the workplace by cleaning, distancing and hygiene information.

Many employment situations may require legal advice before the employer can make any changes to vaccination policies.

Don’t get caught out by making unlawful changes to your workplace! Review your employment agreements and look at your options for keeping your workplace safe.


Single Touch Payroll Reporting for Closely Held Payees Mandatory from July

Single Touch Payroll Reporting for Closely Held Payees Mandatory from July

Closely held payees must be reported via Single Touch Payroll from July 2021. Now is the time to get organised.

Does your business make payments to closely held payees? If so, you will need to start reporting these payments via Single Touch Payroll (STP) from July 2021.

Closely held payees include family members, directors or shareholders of a company and beneficiaries of a trust.

If you’re already reporting employees via STP, then it will be easy to include the extra payees from July.

If your business only pays closely held payees then you may not have signed up for Single Touch Payroll. If not, now is the time to establish a reporting solution.

Typically, closely held payees are paid amounts on the advice of the tax agent, and often these amounts are not calculated until they do your tax return. In this situation, the business can report estimated amounts via STP.

Three Ways to Report Payments to Closely Held Payees

Report actual payments on or before the date of payment if you lodge your own STP reports through your ATO business portal.

Report actual payments quarterly when the activity statement is due. This option is available if you have a BAS or tax agent lodge on your behalf and they already have the ATO quarterly reporting concession in place.

Report a reasonable estimate quarterly. Estimates should be based on amounts equal to or greater than 25% of the previous year’s payments.

If you’re reporting quarterly estimates, it’s important not to underestimate amounts to be paid, as the business may later be liable for superannuation guarantee late charge and penalties.

Small employers have until the individual’s tax return due date to submit the STP finalisation declaration. (For all other payees, the finalisation is due by the usual date of 14 July).

If you’d like help with Single Touch Payroll reporting for your closely held payees, talk to us about planning ahead for lodgement and calculating estimates. We’ll help organise your systems so you’re prepared for STP reporting obligations,

Gift cards

Gift cards and vouchers now have three year expiry

Gift cards and vouchers now have three year expiry

Gift vouchers can be a great way to attract customers, maximise marketing campaigns and increase sales - so long as you don’t get caught out by the new rules.

Does your business offer gift cards or vouchers? If so, new laws came into effect on 1 November 2019, which you'll need to adopt. Gift cards and vouchers issued on or after 1 November 2019 must meet the new requirements of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

New Gift Card Laws

  • Mandatory minimum expiry period of three years from the date of issue.
  • The actual expiry date must be listed on the card; alternatively, the supply date and expiry period, for example, “Valid for 3 years from 11/02/2020”.
  • Post-purchase fees are no longer allowed. Payment processing fees may be allowed, however activation, top-up, account keeping or balance enquiry fees are not.

There are some situations in which the new requirements don’t apply, for example if the card can be topped up, if it is part of a temporary marketing promotion or if it is donated free of charge for promotions. Visit ACL New Gift Card Laws webpage for full details.

If you have not met the new requirements on vouchers issued since 1 November, the new laws will still apply even if the actual voucher does not. Customers will be able to redeem the voucher within the three-year expiry regardless of what is stated on the voucher. Gift cards and vouchers issued before 1 November 2019 have the same expiry period and conditions of purchase as at the time of purchase.

What Next?

  1. Review your gift voucher terms and conditions.
  2. Update your printed and online vouchers and related marketing material.
  3. Check the information published on your website and social media.
  4. Make sure your internal processes and point-of-sale systems are brought up to date and remember to tell your staff of the changes.

We can help you.

​Talk to us about how the changes affect your business operations and cashflow, or how to implement gift cards in your business.

Modern award annualised salary changes

Modern award annualised salary changes

Recent changes made by the Fair Work Commission mean that you need to review employment agreements to ensure they are compliant with the award requirements.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) late last year has varied a number of modern awards that include annualised salary provisions. The decision has also introduced the provision for annualised salaries into some other awards for the first time.

Whilst the actual specifics of the annualised salary provisions vary per award, there are some significant changes that affect all award terms in relation to annualised salaries. - We can help with the red tape.

What is an Annualised Salary?

Some awards permit employees to be paid an annual salary that covers all payments such as allowances, penalty rates and overtime. For many employers and employees, this has been a flexible and practical solution to avoid the need for timesheets and extra payroll administration.

The important changes

The changes may affect the ease and efficiency of your current payroll administration, as there are now extra records required for all employees paid an annual salary under an award provision. Note: this does not affect employees with a common law employment contract.

  • The agreement or arrangement must document the specific provisions of the award that are addressed.
  • The agreement must include reference to overtime or other penalty rates the employee would otherwise be paid, specified as an ‘outer limit’, or maximum number of such hours to be worked in each pay period. Outer limits must be specified separately for overtime and hours that would be subject to a penalty or loading.
  • Records of hours worked (and unpaid breaks) must be kept for each pay period and signed by the employee.
  • The employee must be paid for any extra hours that exceed the ‘outer limits’ as defined in the annual salary agreement.
  • Check the relevant award to see if an employment agreement is required. In some awards the employer can implement an annual salary arrangement without an employee agreement.
  • Document the calculation of the annual salary according to the requirements of the award. It is vital that the calculation shows that the employee is receiving at least as much as if they were paid according to the award hourly rates, including all wages, allowances, penalties, overtime and loadings. This will require breaking down the salary into its separate components.
  • Employer and employee must complete an annual salary review on the anniversary of the agreement or arrangement.

What you need to do now

  1. Make sure you are aware of the applicable modern award and check the annualised salary provisions.
  2. Check that the current annualised salary arrangements meet the new requirements of the award.
  3. Document the calculation as per the award conditions.
  4. Update existing agreements or implement new ones as needed.

The new provisions came into effect on 1 March 2020. Employers need to review all existing agreements for annualised salaries as soon as possible.

You will also need to consider the impact of the new requirements on your payroll administration and software.

There are many payroll software add-ons that can help to make administration easier if your current software does not have the required record-keeping tools built in.

We can help you.

Contact us to arrange a time for a payroll compliance review.

Employee Payment Summaries are due soon – for the last time!

Employee Payment Summaries are due soon - for the last time!

The end of the payroll year will be here sooner than you think! We can help make the process easier by reviewing and validating your payroll figures prior to issuing payment summaries by July 14.

Once you start reporting under Single Touch Payroll, you will no longer be required to issue a Payment Summary. Your final payment summary to employees is due 14th July. After this date your employees can access their income statement through the ATO via myGov.

You’ll have two weeks from the end of the payroll year to issue your payment summary so it’s worthwhile preparing now to make the process easy.

Here’s what you will need:

Payroll Ch​​​​ecklist

  • Make sure you have all the necessary details for all employees, both current and any who have terminated throughout the year. The essential information is full name, date of birth, address, tax file number, and an email address if you are sending payment summaries electronically.
  • Review any terminated employees. Is the correct termination date recorded in your software? Are there any Employment Termination Payments (ETPs)?
  • Review allowances paid to employees and check which ones are required to be reported separately.
  • Review salary sacrifice payments to superannuation for Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions (RESC) amounts.
  • Check any Reportable Fringe Benefit Tax (RFBT) amounts that should be included.
  • Do you plan to email payment summaries to employees? If so, advise employees of your intention to provide electronic versions and make sure the email address is secure and private. The electronic version must be non-editable and preferably generated directly from your payroll software.

Verify Your Payroll Numbers

It’s important to verify payroll figures before issuing payment summaries, in order to minimise the chance of errors and having to re-issue at a later date.

Once the payroll year is finalised at 30 June, you can then focus on analysing the payroll amounts for each employee and cross-checking against the numbers in your profit and loss accounts.

The end of the payroll year will be here sooner than you think! We can help make the process easier by reviewing and validating your payroll figures prior to issuing payment summaries.

Remember, this is the last year you will need to issue payment summaries. 

From 1 July, all employers must report to the ATO using Single Touch Payroll (STP).

Do you need more information about STP? We can help you set up your payroll ready for STP reporting.

All you need to know about single touch payroll

Single touch payroll regulations may require you to make some changes. Automation or outsourcing will make compliance less of a time burden for your business. We can help.

Single touch payroll (STP) is a new regulation that changes when and how small businesses report payroll activity to the Australian Tax Office (ATO). Businesses used to report this information to the ATO once a year. Now, they need to send a report after each payday. And those reports must be submitted digitally, using a very specific format.

Changes to when you report payroll

Small businesses used to finalise their payroll records at the end of the financial year and produce:

  • a payment summary annual report for the ATO, stating how much the business had paid in salary or wages, the PAYG withheld, and some superannuation contributions they’d made
  • a payment summary for each employee, stating what each employee received in wages or salary, the payroll taxes collected from their pay, and some superannuation contributions made on their behalf.

No more payment summary annual reports

Because you’ll be updating the ATO on a pay-by-pay basis, you won’t need to prepare a payment summary annual report anymore. You’ll just let the ATO know when you’ve made your last pay run of the financial year for your employees.

Payment summaries won’t need to be sent to employees anymore, so employers won’t be required to produce them. The ATO will use single touch payroll reports as the sole record of salary/wages paid, taxes collected, and superannuation contributed.

Your employees will be able to see the information that would normally be on their payment summary by logging on to myGov.

You’ll need to report payroll online

There’ll be no more paper forms for reporting your payroll activity to the ATO. You’ll need to submit the information online, using a specific format known as SBR (Standard Business Reporting). Depending on how you do payroll now, you may need to change software or find a service provider who can produce compliant reports for you.

When is the single touch payroll deadline?

Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees don’t have a confirmed deadline for switching to single touch payroll. However, small business advisors expect it to be compulsory from 1 July 2019. Businesses with more than 20 employees switched to single touch payroll on 1 July 2018.

Your options for switching to single touch payroll

To be ready for the switch, you’ll need to make sure you can submit compliant reports every payday.

Here’s what it means:

  • If you use online payroll software, it should be able to handle the job. Just make sure it produces ATO-compliant reports.
  • If you use desktop payroll software, you’ll need to find a service that can upload your payroll reports, convert them into the ATO’s required format and submit them on your behalf.
  • If you use spreadsheets or pen and paper, you’ll need to find a service to convert the data into a compliant digital report format and submit it on your behalf.

We can answer your questions about single touch payroll. Book an appointment now.

Remote work is on the rise – here’s what you need to know

Remote work is on the rise. 

Here's what you need to know.

Remote working has many benefits for your business and you may be offering it already. Make sure you have strong communication channels, and robust systems to support your flexible workers and ensure continued productivity for your business.

Remote working has become more and more common as developments in technology have allowed us to communicate and collaborate no matter where we are. In fact, most of us are already logging on from home or holiday already. In May 2018, Swiss serviced office provider IWG released a study that found that 70% of professionals work remotely at least once a week.

Sometimes called ‘telecommuting’, remote work is on the rise, and it’s challenging traditional ideas about where and when work should take place. Offering flexibility to your staff can be a valuable tool to both attract new talent and retain your existing team. But before deciding to offer remote work, you need to make sure you’re able to support this way of working.

Remote work has many benefits for a business. Offering this option can mean that you retain employees through a change in their circumstances, for example, becoming a parent or relocating to a different part of the country. When you’re recruiting, the ability to offer an entirely remote position can mean that you’re suddenly able to consider candidates from across the country, rather than limiting yourself to one area, or to people who are in the position to be able to relocate.

So what do you need to consider before introducing remote working?

When you’re working with a distributed team, communication is key, and as the employer, it’s your job to provide the resources and systems to make this happen. Typically, these might include:

  • Laptops and other tech as required
  • Compensation if an employee is using their home internet connection
  • A way to stay in touch with the team, beyond email. Platforms like Slack are great for team communication
  • Guidelines around how often and in what way the entire team will catch up
  • Project management tools that are accessible for every worker

With these essentials in place, the biggest factor in making remote work a success is workplace culture. Consider upskilling your management team to make sure they are ready to support your remote staff or even to give them the skills to allow them to do their roles remotely.

Remote working can be isolating for an individual and sometimes the meaning in email and text can be lost so it is important to factor in a regular face-to-face meeting or video conference to bring coworkers together, enable mutual understanding and to build the team culture.

If you’re planning to offer remote work to your team, talk to us to make sure you’re across all of the tax implications.

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