You must make a Finalisation Declaration (lodge a Final Event) by 14 July each year to ensure your employees can access their finalised information, which is used to pre-fill their Individual Income Tax Return (IITR).
Before lodging the Final Event, check that your employees' Year-To-Date (YTD) amounts are correct.
The STP employer reporting guidelines for Phase 2 explain this finalisation process in detail. This includes information about amending the current and prior financial years. The Business Implementation Guide (BIG) s5.14 Finalisation also provides additional information.
STP allows your employees to view their payment information anytime in myGov.
On 1 July, they will see the status of this information change from 'Year-To-Date' to Not tax ready .
When you lodge the Final Event with the ATO, your employees' payment information status will change to Tax ready .
Some employees like to lodge their IITR early in July and may choose to do so before you have finalised their STP information. The ATO will clarify that their Income Statement is Not tax ready .
If they choose to use the Not tax ready information, they acknowledge that:
you may finalise their Income Statement with different amounts from what has already been reported.
they may need to amend their IITR and, depending on the outcome, pay additional tax.
Where the need for an amendment is identified, you have 14 days to report the changes. The amended information will alter the employee's ATO Online Income Statement and the pre-filled IITR.
We recommend you tell your employees when you make a correction that will be reflected in their ATO Online Income Statement.
You will need to tell your employees:
They will need to have a myGov account.
They can access their YTD balances and EOFY Income Statements online through myGov or have access to a Registered Tax Agent.
The Income Statement replaces the Payment Summary.
To wait until their Income Statement is Tax ready in their myGov before lodging their IITR.