If, after having successfully lodged a finalisation event for your employees, you identify that an employee's earnings need to be adjusted, you will need to lodge an amended finalisation event. Employers are required to lodge the amendment no later than 14 days after having identified the need to do an amendment.
Another reason to lodge an amended finalisation event would be to report on reportable fringe benefits amounts for employees who have already been previously marked as final in prior events and so do not appear in the finalisation event.
This article provides instructions on how to lodge an amended finalisation event for businesses reporting their end of year through STP.
Creating an Amended Finalisation Event
To activate the amended finalisation event, go to Reporting > Single Touch Payroll. From this screen, click on the dropdown arrow to the right of the 'Start Finalisation Process' button and then click on 'Create an amended Finalisation Event':
N.B. This option will only appear once a successful finalisation event has been lodged to the ATO.
From here, you will be directed to select the relevant financial year, applicable pay schedule (or all pay schedules) and then add the required employees. It is best practice that you just select the specific employees affected.
The Amendment Employees are made up of all active and terminated employees assigned to that specific pay schedule that have a start date earlier than the current financial year. Once you proceed to the next screen, the process is very similar to that of a normal finalisation event.
Confirming Payroll Data
On this screen, you should:
- ensure the YTD earnings are correct; and
- reconcile the YTD earnings in the event with the YTD payroll reports; and
- rectify any validation issues prior to lodging (to avoid a failed lodgement).
As with a normal finalisation event, an amended finalisation event automatically marks all employees in the event as 'Is Final' so no manual intervention is required here.
From this screen, you can access an excel spreadsheet of the payroll data being reported in the event. To download the document, click on Actions > Excel. To generate an excel document containing all employees' YTD payroll data reported through STP, click on Download > Excel (YTD).
Lastly, you may notice some warnings on the screen, as follows:
The warning will also contain a link to our support article detailing all potential validation warnings. The article can also be found here. All warnings must be rectified before you can proceed to the next step. Once fixed, you can refresh the data in this step by clicking on Actions > Refresh Data. Once all warnings have disappeared you can proceed to the next step.
Entering Reportable Fringe Benefits
This step is only applicable if any of the amended employees need reportable FBT amounts entered. If this is not the case, skip this section by clicking on 'Next'.
There are 2 methods with entering FBT amounts:
- You can enter the amount manually for each employee by clicking on the pencil icon, entering the grossed up RFB amount and then clicking on the Save button; or
- You can bulk import FBT amounts for all or a bulk of employees. To do this, click on Actions > Export RFBA Template. This will direct you to the Data Extracts > Employee Reportable Fringe Benefits screen. Click on 'Download' to access the excel document and start entering the grossed up amounts against each applicable employee. N.B. If the business has multiple pay schedules, there will be separate worksheets for each pay schedule and the employees will be listed in their relevant worksheet (based on their pay schedule). Once saved, you can import the template into the wizard by clicking on Actions > Bulk Import RFBA.
Please take note of the following:
- You must only enter the grossed-up taxable value of these benefits;
- Do not enter any cents in the amounts; and
- Do not include any FBT amounts in the employee's gross earnings; and
- The amount entered must be the YTD amount. If any amounts have previously been entered in other events, the amount will be included in the export. If you need to update an employee's YTD amount enter the actual YTD amount in the field so that it overrides the existing amount, ie the amount added here will not be in addition to the existing amount showing for the employee.
Entering Foreign Tax Paid
This step will only display for a business with employees whose STP income type classification is foreign employment income (FEI) and the business is reporting via STP Phase 2.
Businesses who employ employees that work overseas and are classified as FEI for STP purposes must pay (or be liable to pay) the foreign government for the tax to qualify as FEI. On finalisation, the foreign tax paid (or liable to be paid) must be reported against the employee in order to proceed with the finalisation event. If no tax is entered and you click on "Next", you will be prevented from proceeding to the next step as the following validation will appear:
At this stage, you must either enter the foreign tax amount or, if there is no foreign tax to be paid for the employee, the employee must not be classified as FEI. Rather, you will need to remove that STP income type classification (which is done via the employee's Pay Run Defaults screen) so that the employee can be re-classified with the income type of Salary & Wages.
For more details on foreign employment income, refer here.
Requesting Client Authority (for Registered Tax/BAS Agents only)
This option will only appear for businesses who have indicated that a registered tax/BAS agent will be lodging reports to the ATO (via the ATO Settings screen).
As with a normal finalisation event, you will need to obtain authorisation from your client before proceeding with lodging this event. You can assign one or more STP event approvers to the list and then add a note to indicate the purpose of the amended finalisation event. The users added to the list will be notified via email that there is a finalisation event waiting to be actioned.
At this stage, the user processing the amended finalisation event should click on 'Save for later' and wait to receive a confirmation email once the event has been actioned by an STP event approver. You will only receive a confirmation email if the notification setting 'Email me when a pay event is approved or rejected' is ticked on your My Notifications screen. Otherwise, keep refreshing the screen until the event status updates accordingly.
Lodging the Amended Finalisation Event
The user lodging the event must complete a declaration upon lodging. If the business is set up to require two-factor authentication before lodging the event to the ATO, the user will be asked to enter a verification code after clicking on 'Lodge Finalisation Event' and prior to the event being submitted to the ATO.
The user can choose to receive an email and/or sms or be verified via Google Authenticator (depending on their 2FA settings) and then click on 'Send Code'. Enter the code, when received, and click on 'Verify'. The finalisation event will then submit to the ATO.
At this stage, you have the option of returning to the payroll dashboard or to the actual amended finalisation event where you can keep track of the status of the event. If you have the notification setting 'Email me when there is a Lodgement error' switched on (via the My Notifications screen) you will be sent an email if there is an error with the lodgement.
Additional setting for tax/BAS agents
Before you are able to lodge the amended finalisation event, you must:
- select the 'Registered Tax Agent' option when choosing who is lodging, and
- assign the authority who has approved the event. Although it is possible to lodge the event while the selected authority’s status is showing as awaiting authorisation, for instance where a verbal authorisation is obtained, it is the responsibility of the registered agent to assign an approved client authority.
Sending Employee Notifications
Once the amended finalisation event has been successfully lodged with the ATO, the employee’s myGov display will be updated with the amended information and the information will be available to pre-fill the employee’s income tax return.
At this stage, you will also have the ability to send system generated email notifications to the employees included in that event. To do this, go into the event and click on Actions > Send Notifications.
Closely held payees who are reported on a quarterly basis
Closely held payees who are reported on a quarterly basis will be included in a separate finalisation event at the end of the financial year. For more information, see here. To include them in an amended finalisation event select finalising for 'closely held employees (reported quarterly):
Closely held employees who are reported on a 'per pay run' basis will automatically be included in the standard finalisation event with arm's length employees.
If you have any questions or feedback, please email us at support@yourpayroll.com.au