Every Australian employer must finalise their Single Touch Payroll (STP) data for the 2025-26 financial year by 14 July 2026. STP finalisation is what tells the ATO that your year-end payroll figures are confirmed — and it is what populates pre-filled income data in your employees' tax returns.
What "finalisation" actually means. Throughout the year, every pay run reports gross wages, PAYG withholding, and super to the ATO via STP. At year-end, you submit a finalisation event that flags those figures as final. Before finalisation, employees see their YTD data in myGov marked as "Year-to-date" and cannot reliably lodge their tax return. Once you finalise, the data flips to "Tax ready" and they can lodge.
The 14 July deadline applies to most employers. Closely held payees (family members, directors of family-controlled companies) have a later deadline aligned with the income tax return due date — but for everyone else, 14 July is the date and there's no automatic extension.
Pre-finalisation reconciliation. Before you click finalise, reconcile three things against your accounting records: gross wages reported via STP versus what your accounts show as wages expense; PAYG withholding versus what was remitted on your activity statements (W1 and W2); employer super contributions versus what was actually paid into employee funds. Any discrepancy needs to be fixed before finalisation, not after — corrections after finalisation are technically allowed but they trigger amended pre-fill data and confused employees.
Common reconciliation issues. Backpay or bonuses paid in the new financial year that should have been allocated to the old year. Termination payments incorrectly classified as ordinary wages. Allowances (tool, vehicle, travel, meal) that should be reported as separately itemised allowances rather than rolled into gross. Reportable Fringe Benefits Amounts (RFBA) — these are reported via STP for the FBT year ending 31 March, not the financial year, but they appear on the same payment summary and need to be entered correctly.
If you find an error after 14 July. Submit an STP correction event through your payroll software. The ATO is generally cooperative if you self-correct — penalties typically only apply where the error is large, deliberate, or repeated.
Tell your employees once finalisation is done. They can then lodge through myGov with auto-populated income data, which is much faster and more accurate than manual entry.