STP allowances MA000025

NarellePaterson

Our Award MA000025 says some allowances (industry,tool and Licence) have to be included before overtime etc is calculated is there an easy way to do this in Reckon and still report allowances seperately for STP. I was told to just include in the base rate but I am still not convinced it the right wat. Evertime I ring ATO or fairwork I get slightly differrent info I am not sure anyone really understands the issue.....seems there is no help for me... is ther anyone else I can ring for help.... I'm loosing sleep over this issue.

Acctd4

The breakdown of Allowances is not applicable at the moment; This relates to STP 2 which Reckon (along with most of the other payroll software providers) has a current deferral for to 01/01/23. Therefore, you can continue reporting these as you have been, for the time being.

Once the feature update(s) have been released by Reckon, we will know more. Note there is currently some conflicting info on which allowances are required to be broken down & which are not. At the moment, this is not an issue but I would recommend checking the award specifics on it.

NOTE: An "All purpose" allowance is generally part of an employee's base rate - this means they are paid it regardless of whether it is expended or not & it forms part of their base entitlement calculations. Because of this, that tends to mean it is NOT required to be broken down separately within the Paycheque as it is not "separate" to their base earnings HOWEVER it's essential that the breakdown is recorded in writing somewhere. Usually, any applicable Allowances are identified & listed in the employee's specific Contract of Employment.

NarellePaterson

So we haven't got long to go and I have contacted Reckon he could not give me any information the software will address all purpose allowances or if/when an update will happen and the ATO site says

"Many awards include allowances that are added to an employee's hourly rate and are paid 'for all purposes'.

In STP Phase 2, you must separately report all-purpose allowances against the relevant allowance type. It's important that these allowances can be identified because they're treated differently in different situations, and not being able to identify them may disadvantage your employee."

I am getting worried.

Acctd4

@NarellePaterson Reckon has a further STP2 deferral extension in place until 30 June 2023. (Note this doesn't mean STP2 isn't going to be available in Reckon until that time, but it does allow Reckon additional time - to ensure it's fully operational & less likely to have any bugs/issues - before rolling it out)

IMPORTANT: Anyone using Reckon products is automatically covered until 30 June 2023 under this deferral extension so there is nothing needing to be done by users at the moment 😊

At this stage (in the initial STP phase, as stated previously) all-purpose allowances do not HAVE to be shown/reported separately if they're part of the employee's base rate, PROVIDING the breakdown is done & the result is that the employee is "better off overall" - This is known as the BOOT ("Better Off Overall Test") These calcs can just be added to the employee Notes so they're "recorded" for this purpose (or saved on a spreadsheet)

Reckon work very closely with the ATO & the ATO only clear software as STP-compliant if it meets all requirements. Therefore, Reckon software will definitely be compliant (because it has to be) - Whether that ultimately requires full breakdown for STP2 or not will be determined in their collaboration with the ATO pre-STP2 release.

NarellePaterson

Thanks I was not aware of the extended deferral . Wouldn't it be nice if the awards and ATO could get together and make wages a little less complicated for us little people, We always pay above the award so hopefully they would always be boot...cross fingers.😀