2024 Employee Share Scheme (ESS) Reporting
29/05/2024
The ATO has upcoming reporting obligations affecting those offering employee share schemes (ESS). Find out how the CTS ESS Toolkit, our ATO-approved software can simplify your reporting obligations.
Upcoming ATO reporting obligations
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have reporting obligations in place, affecting employers who issue shares or share options to their employees. The deadlines to comply with the reporting requirements are:
- ESS statements are due to be issued to employees by 14 July 2024.
- ATO reports are due for lodgement with ATO by 14 August 2024.
What do the ATO reporting obligations mean for you?
Our innovation solution | CTS ESS Toolkit
Our ‘Complete Tax Solutions Employee Share Scheme’ Toolkit (CTS ESS Toolkit), an ATO-approved and compliant software enables employers to simplify their online annual employee share scheme reporting obligations.
Using the CTS ESS Toolkit, SW have been successfully working with businesses to meet their ESS lodgement requirements since electronic reporting began. We are one of only a handful of providers to have passed ATO testing and have ATO approval for our specialised software. CTS ESS Toolkit is designed to help you meet the ATO’s ESS reporting requirements.
The table below outlines the types of companies that are most likely to benefit from using the CTS ESS Toolkit.
Significant Global Entities
Significant Global Entities (SGE) are entities which are part of a group with annual global turnover of A$1 billion or more. SGEs are subject to increased Failure to Lodge (FTL) penalties for late lodgement of each and every ATO document or approved form. The SGE penalties are currently $156,500 for each 28 days in which an approved form is lodged after the due date up to a maximum of $782,500. The penalties apply to each and every late lodgement of an approved form. We consider the lodgement of ESS reporting would fall within this definition.
The public officer of the company is responsible for the company’s obligations under the income tax law, including the timely lodgement of approved forms with the ATO. If your company is part of an SGE, we recommend that you implement systems to ensure timely lodgements of the relevant ESS reports with the ATO.
Next steps
Time is limited to make the necessary arrangements to comply with the ESS reporting requirements. The ATO is particularly keen to ensure corporates are compliant and provide timely and accurate reporting.
Now is the time to ensure your business is not left behind and that everything is ready for reporting season. We can provide a fully outsourced service or license our software.
To discuss how to comply with the ATO reporting requirements or learn more about how our ESS Toolkit will help you, please contact Sam Morris or Justin Batticciotto on the details below.
Contributors
Justin Batticciotto
