Taking on an Employee
The recent ATO Small Business Fix-it Squad on “Making it easier to take on an Employee” was finalised in July. The ATO are now developing a strategy to progress the following priority recommendations:
- A whole of government checklist covering the regulation requirements that apply when taking on an employee will be developed. It will provide links to related agency reference material to make it easier and quicker for employers to find supporting content. It will be hosted on www.business.gov.au
- Improvements to awards are underway, the Fair Work Ombudsman has recently released the Pay and Conditions tool – PACT – which replaced the previous PayCheck Plus tool. The tool assists users in determining awards, classifications, rates of pay (including penalty rates/overtime etc), leave and termination entitlements. Further refinements will be made to help differentiate awards and the right classification.
- Improvements will be made to the ATO’s employee/contractor decision tool to improve usability and support employers wanting to understand if they are required to make Pay-as-You-Go Withholding payments and/or Super Guarantee payments for their worker.
- Improvements will be made to the way the ATO presents information on how to treat specific employee entitlements (whether Pay as You Go withholding or Super Guarantee charge is to be applied to the entitlement).
ICB have requested these recommendations be made known to the teams developing the Single Touch Payroll program
