JOBKEEPER PAYMENT

Under the Jobkeeper Payment, businesses impacted by the COVID:19 will be able to access a subsidy to continue paying their employees. Eligible employers will be reimbursed a fixed amount of $1,500 (before tax) per fortnight for each eligible employee for the period beginning 30th March 2020 until 27 September 2020. TFP Tax Accountants commence the enrolment (From 20th April 2020) on Jobkeeper scheme for our clients through our Agent portal.

Employers will need to pay eligible employees a minimum of $1,500 per fortnight to claim the Jobkeeper payment. This will be paid to the employer in arrears each month by ATO. The first payments to eligible employers will commence in the first week of May 2020.

If employers do not continue to pay their employees for each pay period, they will cease to qualify for the Jobkeeper payment. To be eligible for the Jobkeeper payment, employers and their employees must meet a range of criteria.

Eligible Employers:

Employers will be eligible for the Jobkeeper payment if all the following apply:

On 1 March 2020, you carried on a business in Australia.
Entity employed at least one eligible employee on 1 March 2020.
Eligible employees are currently employed by the business for the fortnights you claim for (including those who are stood down or re-hired).
Your business has faced a 30% fall in turnover (for an aggregated turnover of $1 billion or less) or 50% fall in turnover (for an aggregated turnover of more than $1 billion)
Your business is not in one of the ineligible
Question: How to work out your fall in turnover? 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.
How you choose to project your fall in turnover is not dependent on whether you report a quarterly or monthly BAS, though you can do that if it is easier. The turnover calculation is based on GST turnover, but there are some modifications, including disregarding GST grouping (where two or more associated business entities operate as a single GST group). We will provide more information soon about applying the turnover test. If you work out that you qualify for the Jobkeeper payments for the first fortnight because your turnover has declined by the relevant amount, you remain eligible and do not need to keep testing turnover in following months. However, you will have ongoing monthly reporting requirements.

After you have worked out you are an eligible employer, you then need to check whether your employee or employees are eligible.

Employee’s Eligibility:

Your employee is eligible under the Jobkeeper Payment scheme if they:

Are employed by you (including those stood down or re-hired)
Were either a permanent full-time or part-time employee at 1 March 2020 or long-term casual employee (employed on a regular and systematic basis for at least 12 months) as at 1 March 2020 and not a permanent employee of any other employer.
Were at least 16 years of age on 1 March 2020
Were an Australian resident as at 1 March 2020 within the meaning of the Social Security Act 1991
Were not in receipt of any payments as government parental leave, Dad & Partner Pay, Worker’s compensation in accordance with Australian worker’s compensation law.
Agree to be nominated by you.
You cannot claim for any employees who:

were first employed by you after 1 March 2020, or
left your employment before 1 March 2020, or
have been, or have agreed to be, nominated by another employer.
Casual employees are not eligible unless they were employed by you on a regular and systematic basis for at least 12 months as at 1 March 2020. If your employees have multiple employers, they can usually choose which employer they want to nominate through. However, if your employees are long-term casuals and have other permanent employment, they must choose the permanent employer and cannot nominate you. They cannot receive the Jobkeeper payment from more than one employer.

How ATO will Pay to Employer:

An employer will usually get $3,000 a month per eligible employee for the two fortnightly periods in that month.We can explain on below example:

Payment 1: May (2 Pay periods- fortnight starting on 30thMar and 13th Apr)

Payment 2: Jun (2 Pay periods- fortnight starting on 27th April & 11th May)

Payment 3: Jul (2 Pay periods- fortnight starting on 25th May & 8th June)

Payment 4: Aug (2 Pay periods- fortnight starting on 22nd Jun & 6th Jul)

Payment 5: Sep ( 3 Pay periods- fortnight starting on 20th Jul, 3rd Aug & 17th Aug)

Payment 6: Oct (2 Pay periods- fortnight starting on 31st Aug. & 14th Sept).

If you or your business are affected by the corona virus pandemic, we can run a free phone consultation. consultation to help you achieve the maximum benefit at such a time. If you think your business is affected, you might be eligible for some of COVID 19 Stimulus Package. However please note, benefits will only be available if you are eligible and you can prove this. We can help you understand the criteria that can help you determine the benefits you would be eligible for and what is it that you would need to provide.

Should you required further clarification, please feel free to call us or write an email on kamal@tfptax.com.au

All the very best !