Do you think accounting software or Single Touch Payroll software /app such as Xero are ripping off people?
If yes, can you help me out by signing this petition?
Do You Think Small Business Should Have to Purchase Software Just to Report STP and GST with the ATO?
harryaus on 19/07/2025 - 21:05
Last edited 20/07/2025 - 15:21 by 1 other user
Last edited 20/07/2025 - 15:21 by 1 other user
Poll Options
- 231ATO should provide free STP and accounting software for small businesses upto 10 employees.
- 13ATO should provide free STP and accounting software for businesses with limited revenue.
- 3Accounting software should be subsidised, happy to pay monthly subscription for few bucks.
- 61No, I don't care. Happy to pay $100/month to Xero
Comments
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Yep, as pet netjock - using track categories and being very thorough to ensure all transactions are accurately coded to the right entity.
Quickbooks Online charges $5 per employee per month on top of their base subscription.
I'm so happy I sold my business recently. Good luck.
Xero is total shit. The way it handles credit notes alone is enough to make anyone give up the will to live.
Lol what a bs poll by someone demanding free stuff or else…
It would be chaos if businesses could do it however they want, and auditing it would cost the government a fortune. Xero has to be one of the smallest expenses any small business with less than 20 employees can have. I've heard complaints from small business owners about Xero, but do you think they would be doing better if they made up their own system of doing it?
Exactly, if government wants to save a fortune auditing small businesses, why can't they spend a small fraction of that fortune to develop a basic STP reporting tool?
There are a lot of costs to consider when adding employees to a business. $100 a month for a standalone software solution is pretty expensive if you have one employee but once you get to 5 or more it seems pretty reasonable. For business with very small number of employees aren't there 'payroll as a service' providers who can do the reporting on behalf of the business?
From the ATOs point of view they are trying to make things less time consuming to comply by having a single API that everyone has to use. I guess their theory is that over time more competition will come into the software reporting market to cover all business sizes and bring costs down. Not to mention the aforementioned time saving factor.
just do what other people do, dont pay GST and PAYG and just go broke and reopen the business under a new name
government hates this one trick
I reckon a) If ATO has a requirement, they need to ensure there is a free way of meeting that requirement; and/ or b) they need to simplify the rules so that expensive software isn't required.
I've always managed my personal books (including some sole trader ventures) in spreadsheets. I'm not paying for software or accountants. (But very unimpressed how complicated everything is.)
If I may diverge to a particular type of company:
I'm so unimpressed that a SMSF needs to be audited, so I'm forced to pay for software and an auditor. But I'm particularly unimpressed how complicated everything has become. Complexity doesn't add any value, it just makes an economy for software companies and accountants and auditors.
IMO a SMSF should be treated as an extension of personal finances. Manage your books however you want, submit your tax return, and if they suspect you aren't following the rules, they audit you.Agree, its all too complex and too much red tape and research that you doing the right thing.
I can understand with some small business owners just use cash employees or off-shore tasks.
A business in our warehouse complex refuses to have any employees on his books as that triggers red tape in tax/payroll/workcover/saftey procedures and the list goes on and on.
When I spend hours doing all this work for the ATO and other Government and council departments I sometimes envy him.
We recently had an employees that was short on cash and really wanted to work more, but based on the award for our industry it is much cheaper for us to get a casual. Poor chap just wanted more hours at his standard rate, but we could not do it legally, got in a casual and he was quite upset at the system.you know why they need to audit smsf owners………because people would just use it as their piggy bank and reap the tax benefits a legitimate super account offers
On the point mate.
If there wasn't any audit, just image the shitty and dodgy things people would do.So they get audited, pay it back plus a hefty fine… it's just the same with tax evasion…
you have to remember it's their own money they're stealing, and the ATO has a large window of opportunity to catch anyone not following rules - they could even ensure everyone gets audited before they turn 60
As there is a mandate to use their system they should provide a cost free alternative.
If it assists them with their revenue contribution, ie payroll tax they should be paying for it.
It's easier to change policy than you think, just requires influence.
as long as they are buying and not renting the software. SaaS has been an absolute scam
If you’re a small business, a spreadsheet CAN suffice (very dependent on the business) and bank transactions used as proof.
Invoicing with word/ PDF docs. While manual, practically free and doable.
And this is where the OP question comes in.
In this scenario you are then now are forced to use private company STP software to upload the data to the ATO.
No other way.
I havent used it yet. But i see Odoo can be self hosted and free. might be good for the more tech savy people out there.
Has anybody used Odoo for Payroll purposes? and does it work well with ATO compliance?
Odoo is an entire CRM that does not look easy to set up self-hosted. From what I've looked, the Australia localisation does not support STP stage 2 natively, and relies on integration with 3rd party apps such as Employment Hero or KeyPay (which aren't free).
This type of issue is a problem worldwide. In the US the tax system is so complicated that individuals struggle to complete their own tax returns without using paid software. During the Biden administration the IRS finally made free filing software available to individuals, but not all states allowed the use of it. Intuit the maker of TurboTax has been lobbying hard for the software to be removed from use, and block further states from allowing it. It now looks like the trump administration will kill the initiative off, so that individuals will need to purchase software every year.
Govt Lobbying kills good initiatives.
I'm still using the last standalone version of MYOB (premier 7) that did not require annual subscription payments or connection to the internet to function. But it can't handle STP.
If the ATO makes a change to reporting requirements, they should provide the tools for employers to comply with it.
Its great that 242 out of 303 voted for yes for free or subsidised software to be provided by govt. which is a whopping 79.86% of total vote count. Thanks guys for the support.
I would request all of these 242 voters to sign the petition (link in this post) and share as much as you can.
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Set it up using cost centres / tags https://central.xero.com/s/article/Set-up-tracking-categorie…