JobKeeper Payment

Please find attached two fact sheets regarding the $,1,500 JobKeeper Payment announced by the Federal Government on 30 March 2020. In the fact sheets there are links to the ATO website where eligible employers can apply. We understand that the ATO will soon provide more guidelines in relation to this and that the legislation is currently being drafted.

In summary this is what we know to date:

Eligible employers will receive $1,500 per fortnight per employee for 6 months,
Employers must pass on the payment in full to employees,
Employers will be eligible if their turnover has reduced by 30% from the same period of the previous year (where annual turnover is < $1billion). Further guidelines are to be issued by the ATO on this but it appears , for example, if your turnover for March 2020 or April 2020 or later month has been reduced by 30% compared to March 2019 or April 2019 etc, then your business will be eligible,
The subsidy will start on 30 March 2020, with the first payments to be received by employers in the first week of May. Employers will be required to fund the wages until the payments are received. Payments will be made to the employer monthly in arrears by the ATO.
Every employee will get the same payment no matter what the regular wages of the employee, whether fulltime, part time or casual. They must have been an employee on 1 March 2020. The Government is hoping that employers will continue to pay an employee’s normal wages should they normally earn more than $1,500 per fortnight.
PAYGW will be required to be deducted from the payment.
Eligible employers who have stood down their employees before the commencement of this scheme will be able to participate. Employees that are re-engaged by a business that was their employer on 1 March 2020 will also be eligible and can choose to switch from the JobSeeker allowance to the JobKeeper Payment,
Employees that have been retrenched and paid out their entitlements may be reinstated so they can access the JobKeeper Payment but more clarification is required on this,
Causal employees will have to have been employed for a period of at least 12 months to qualify,
The payments will apply even if the business has gone into hibernation and wound down their operations for the time being due to COVID 19,
Self employed people will also be eligible for this payment but we are not sure if this will be restricted to sole traders or exactly what the fine print will be. At this stage, the eligibility criteria is where their turnover has reduced by 30% from the same period of the previous year.
Businesses without employees will need to provide an ABN for their business, nominate an individual to receive the payment and provide that individual’s Tax File Number and provide a declaration as to recent business activity. People who are self-employed will need to provide a monthly update to the ATO to declare their continued eligibility for the payments. Payment will be made monthly to the individual’s bank account.

We will update you as more information comes to hand particularly once the ATO Guidelines and the Explanatory Memorandum have been released.

A further announcement was also made yesterday, lifting the income threshold of partners to $79,000 for those people applying for the jobseeker allowance (previously the limit was $48,100).

https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/Fact_sheet_supporting_businesses_4.pdf

https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/Fact_sheet_Info_for_Employers_0.pdf