ATO PAYG withholding pre-fill for activity statements

From July 2023, the ATO will use your STP reports to help prepare your electronic activity statements in ATO online services.

What is ATO PAYG withholding pre-fill?

With Single Touch Payroll (STP), you report your employees' payroll information to us each time you pay them through STP-enabled software. Because you already report pay as you go (PAYG) withholding in STP, the ATO will use that same data to help you prepare your activity statements – so you can 'tell the ATO once'.

When the ATO sues the STP reports to pre-fill your electronic activity statement in ATO online services, this is called ATO PAYG withholding pre-fill.

The ATO will use your STP reports to pre-fill PAYG withholding labels W1 and W2. However, the ATO can only pre-fill your electronic activity statement with the information sent through your STP-enabled software. Your primary source of data should be your software and payroll records. Your product may already populate W1 and W2 for you, using your records.

The ATO will also make ATO PAYG withholding pre-fill available for digital service providers. They will determine if and when they will use this in their products.

ATO PAYG withholding pre-fill starts from July 2023

If you use ATO online services to lodge your activity statement, ATO PAYG withholding pre-fill will be made available for:

monthly PAYG withholders from the July 2023 activity statement
quarterly PAYG withholders from the Quarter 1 2023–24 activity statement.

If you received ATO PAYG withholding pre-fill as part of the limited rollout which commenced in February 2020, this change won't affect you. You'll still have access to this information.

How ATO PAYG withholding pre-fill works

The ATO will pre-fill your activity statements in ATO online services using the PAYG withholding amounts you’ve reported though STP. The payment date of your STP report will determine which activity statement the ATO assigns the PAYG withholding amounts to.

For further information see :

Source: ATO 13 June 2023 QC 72825. Brought to you by RGA Business and Tax Accountants. Liability Limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

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