Overview

This article applies to businesses that have closely held employees who they report STP quarterly. This article does not apply to any closely held employees who have the Report Each Employee Each Pay Run option selected. We also recommend reading this in our STP Guide.

How do I set up closely held employees on the platform?

Refer to this article for instructions on setting up a closely held employee and general information on closely held reporting obligations from the 1st July 2021.

How do I lodge a quarterly pay event via STP?

From the Single Touch Payroll home screen accessed via  the ATO Single Touch Payroll (STP) Reporting module and clicking on the Report Closely Held Employees Quarterly button. This button will only appear for businesses that have employees classified as closely held and are using the quarterly basis reporting method.

If a business has closely held employees and all these employees are being reported on a per pay run basis, then this button will not appear. You will then be required to select the financial year and the quarter you want to report.

If you click the Cancel button, the Create Pay Event modal will disappear. If you click the Create button, you will then go to the pay event screen with the quarterly reported closely held employees and their Year to Date (YTD) earnings pre-populated.

Payroll earnings reported via pay events for closely held employees accumulate YTD amounts up to the last pay date within the quarter being reported in the pay event. For example, if a business reports a pay event for the July to September quarter i.e. first quarter of the financial year, earnings included will be from all pay runs with a date paid on or from the 1st July up to the 30th September. Including any ad hoc pay runs using different pay schedules with a date paid of the 1st July to 30 Sept.

When a business lodges their October to December quarterly pay event, earnings included, will be from all pay runs with a date paid on or from the 1st July up to the 31st December. Including any adhoc pay runs using different pay schedules with a date paid of the 1st July to the 31st December.

What if I have made a mistake with the data reported in the pay event?

When reporting closely held employees on a quarterly basis, you have until the due date of your next quarterly STP report to correct a closely held employee's YTD information. When you identify a need for a correction throughout the financial year. If a closely held payee is not included in your next quarterly STP report, you must either:

• Include them in your current quarterly STP pay event with corrected year-to date amounts, or
• Lodge an update event by the relevant due date for quarterly activity statement with the corrected year to date amount for that employee. You can find instructions on how to lodge an update event in this article.

Quarterly reporting due dates

The quarterly STP event must be successfully lodged on or before the due date of your quarterly activity statements. If your activity statement is due later than the regular due date, for example, because you are entitled to a concession or have a deferral, then the quarterly STP event must be lodged by your later activity statement due date.

If you report your Pay as You Go (PAYG) withholding on monthly activity statements, your quarterly STP report, including amounts paid to your closely held payees, is due on the same day as your activity statement for the final month of the quarter. If your activity statement is due later than the regular due date, for example, because you are entitled to a concession or have a deferral, then your quarterly STP report is still due by your later activity statement due date.

If you are reporting actual payments on a quarterly basis, you only need to lodge an STP event in the quarters where you have processed a payment that you need to report. For example, if you only processed a payment that you need to report through STP in the December and June quarters, you only need to lodge an STP event for those two quarters and finalise your STP reporting at the end of the financial year. If you have chosen to report estimates on a quarterly basis, you must lodge an STP event in each quarter of the financial year.