We hope you are well and coping with these extraordinary times.

With the JobKeeper legislation now passed through parliament and open for application from Monday, we wanted to provide you with an update regarding the eligibility for JobKeeper payments.

The JobKeeper payment is open to eligible employers to enable them to pay their eligible employee’s salary or wages of at least $1,500 (before tax) per fortnight.

The JobKeeper payment is also open to business owners who are not an employee but who are actively engaged in their business, such as sole traders, partners, company directors or trust beneficiaries.  However, you can only nominate 1 active business owner per entity, even if there are multiple business owners or participants.

ELIGIBLE BUSINESSES:

To be eligible for JobKeeper, your business needs to demonstrate a decrease in GST turnover of more than 30% compared to the equivalent period last year.

Interestingly, we contacted the ATO and they confirmed that you do not need to be directly impacted by Covid19 to be eligible for these payments.  The eligibility for JobKeeper is simply that the business turnover has decreased by more than 30% which could be a result of other factors such as drought or fires.

To work out your fall in turnover for the first fortnight starting 30 March 2020, you can compare either:

  • GST turnover for March 2020 with GST turnover for March 2019
  • projected GST turnover for April 2020 with GST turnover for April 2019
  • projected GST turnover for the quarter starting April 2020 with GST turnover for the quarter starting April 2019.

The Commissioner of Taxation also has the discretion to set out alternative tests that can establish your eligibility when turnover periods are not appropriately comparable.

You only need to satisfy this requirement once – you don’t need to retest turnover each month.

If you are not eligible based on the turnover test for March or April, you can apply the test to subsequent months and claim for JobKeeper in the future.  The JobKeeper scheme will operate until 27 September 2020.

More information regarding eligibility for employers can be found in the following link:

https://www.ato.gov.au/General/JobKeeper-Payment/Employers/Eligible-employers/

Information for business owners without employees can be found here:

https://www.ato.gov.au/General/JobKeeper-Payment/Sole-traders-and-other-entities/

ELGIBLE EMPLOYEES:

There are a number of criteria to determine whether an employee is eligible for JobKeeper, which include:

  • Employees must have been employed by you as at 1 March 2020 and be:
    • Permanent full-time or part time employees; or
    • Casual employees employed for more than 12 months.
  • Employees must be Australian Residents over 16 years old.
  • Employees must not be receiving the following payments:
    • Government parental leave or Dad and partner pay; or
    • Australian worker compensation due to incapacity for work.
  • Employees must agree to be nominated by the employer.

You should view the full eligibility requirements in the following link:

https://www.ato.gov.au/general/jobkeeper-payment/employers/your-eligible-employees/

ENROL & APPLY:

Businesses will be able to enrol in the JobKeeper scheme starting from 20 April, and you must enrol by 30 April to claim JobKeeper payments for the first fortnight starting from 30 March 2020.

There are a number of preliminary steps you can take now to get ready to claim the JobKeeper payment:

  • Enter your details in the following link to receive updates from the ATO (please note this does not register your business for JobKeeper payments, it is for you to receive updates only)
    https://www.ato.gov.au/Job-keeper-payment/
  • If you are not already using Single Touch Payroll (STP) enabled software, now would be a good time to start.  This will help you to streamline the payroll process.  Speak to us about your STP software options.

You will be able to submit your application for JobKeeper starting from 20 April 2020.  You should view all the application steps in the following link:

https://www.ato.gov.au/General/JobKeeper-Payment/Employers/Enrol-and-apply-for-the-JobKeeper-payment/

CONCLUSION:

There are a number of eligibility criteria that must be satisfied and you will need to follow all the relevant steps to submit your claim for JobKeeper.

To receive the maximum benefit you will need to submit your claim by the end of April.

If you think you may be eligible and you need assistance with the process, please contact us, we are here to help.