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A PAYG payment summary, now known as an income statement, is the official record showing your total wages and total tax withheld by an employer during a financial year. It is the document used to lodge your tax return.
How do income statements work now?
The old system of paper PAYG payment summaries was replaced with Single Touch Payroll (STP). Under STP:
- Employers report wages and withholding directly to the ATO with every pay run
- The data is consolidated into your income statement at year-end
- The statement is finalised by the employer between 14 July and 31 July
- Once finalised, your tax return can be lodged using that data
How can you access your income statement?
Through our service, we access your income statement directly. You do not need to collect it from your employer or log into ATO systems yourself.
What we see in your records:
- Total gross wages from each employer
- Total tax withheld from each employer
- Each employer listed separately if you worked for more than one
- The finalisation status (in progress or finalised)
This is one of the main advantages of lodging through a registered tax agent. We see everything the ATO sees, and we wait until all employer reports are finalised before lodging your return.
What if an employer has not finalised their report?
If a financial year has ended and an employer's income statement is still showing as "in progress" past 31 July, it means they have not finalised their payroll reporting. We can:
- Contact the employer on your behalf to ask them to finalise
- Lodge with an estimate if the employer is unresponsive (then amend later if needed)
- Help you raise the issue with the ATO if the employer refuses to report
Get in touch if you need help chasing an employer who has not finalised their reporting.
How is your income statement used to lodge?
When we prepare your return:
- We pull your income statements from the ATO system
- We cross-check the figures against any payslips you provide
- We identify any discrepancies (missing wages, incorrect withholding, missed employers)
- We flag and resolve issues before lodging
Lodging without this cross-check is risky. The income statements are usually accurate but not always, and any error becomes a problem for you to resolve with the ATO after the fact.