An STP lodgement was rejected¶

When you finish a pay run, the details are sent to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) through Single Touch Payroll (STP) — the system that reports pay, tax and super to the ATO. Most of the time this happens quietly in the background. Every now and then, a report comes back as rejected.

A rejection is not a fine or a black mark. It simply means the report did not go through, so the ATO has not received it yet. You fix the reason it was knocked back, and then you lodge it again.

In one line

A rejected STP lodgement means the report did not go through — usually a detail is wrong or a connection dropped. Fix the cause and lodge again.

Why this matters¶

If you do not realise a report was rejected, the ATO will not have your pay information, even though the staff have been paid. Knowing what a rejection means, and that it is fixable, lets you sort it out quickly instead of worrying that you have done something seriously wrong.

What you will learn¶

What a rejected STP lodgement actually means
The usual reasons a report gets rejected
How to fix the cause and lodge again

Understanding the concept¶

Think of an STP lodgement like sending an important letter. A rejection is the letter coming back to you rather than reaching the ATO. Nothing is lost — you just need to work out why it bounced and send it again.

There are two broad reasons a report is rejected.

A detail is wrong. The report contains information that does not look right to the ATO. Common examples are a business number (an ABN, the Australian Business Number) that does not match, or an employee's details — such as their name, date of birth or tax file number — that are entered incorrectly. The ATO checks the report when it arrives, and if something does not line up, it sends the report back so it can be corrected.

A connection issue. Sometimes the report simply cannot reach the ATO at that moment — the connection dropped, or the ATO's service was briefly unavailable. In this case nothing is actually wrong with your report; it just needs to be sent again.

Either way, the fix is the same shape: find the cause, correct it if needed, and lodge the report again. The ATO's own guidance is that if you cannot work out why a report was rejected, your software provider or your tax agent can help you identify and fix it before you re-lodge.

For accountants & bookkeepers

Rejections are validation or transport failures rather than accounting errors — the pay event never landed, so there is nothing to reverse. Typical causes are a mismatched ABN or branch, or payee identity fields that fail ATO validation. Once the underlying data is corrected, the same report is lodged again. Where a cause is unclear, the ATO directs employers to their digital service provider or registered agent.

Example¶

Sam runs a small landscaping business and pays four staff each fortnight. After a pay run, the STP report comes back as rejected. Sam checks the details and finds that a new employee's tax file number was typed with a digit missing. Sam corrects the employee's details, then lodges the report again. This time it goes through, and the ATO has the pay information. The staff had already been paid, so nothing changed for them — only the report needed fixing.

Common mistakes¶

Assuming the report went through — always check that a lodgement was accepted, not just sent.
Re-lodging without changing anything when a detail was wrong — the same report will usually be rejected again for the same reason.
Panicking over a connection issue — if nothing is wrong with the report, simply lodging again often fixes it.
Struggling alone — if the cause is unclear, the ATO says your software provider or tax agent can help.

How this works in myaccountant¶

In the app — after a pay run, myaccountant lodges the STP report to the ATO and shows you the lodgement status, so you can see whether it was accepted or rejected. If a report is rejected, you can correct the details it flagged — for example an employee's information — and lodge the report again from within the app.

Key points¶

A rejected lodgement means the report did not reach the ATO — it is not a penalty.
Common causes are a wrong detail (like an ABN or an employee's details) or a connection issue.
Fix the cause first, then lodge the report again.
A connection issue may just need re-lodging with no other change.
If you cannot find the cause, your software provider or tax agent can help.

Learn next¶

General information only — not tax, super or financial advice.

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