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JobKeeper update: What are the details?

JobKeeper update: What are the details?

14/04/2020

As further documents have been released by Government following our JobKeeper (JKP) webinar on 9 April 2020, our team brings you the latest clarifications.

Updated 16 April 2020: 

Late on 9 April, the Federal Government Treasurer released the following documents:

  • Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Rules 2020 (The Rules)
  • Explanatory Statement to the Rules (ES).

In addition, revised versions of the JKP Fact Sheets were also released on the Treasury’s website.
The ES and revised Fact Sheets provide greater clarity in relation to how the rules will operate.

Click here to view our webinar recording from Thursday 16 April 2020.

To augment our webinar on the JKP, we highlight the following updates:

$1 billion Threshold Test

The ES and Fact Sheets confirm that the $1 Billion threshold Test will be based on the entity’s aggregated turnover. This means worldwide income will be included.

Operation of the Decline in Turnover Test (DITT)

  • Employers need to satisfy the DITT before it becomes eligible for the JKP.
  • Once this occurs, there is no requirement to retest in later months. Please note this changefrom the webinar video.
  • The test can be performed based on a monthly (e.g. April 2020) or quarterly calculation (e.g. quarter ended 30 June 2020). Once the employer has passed the DITT for say April 2020, it does not need to retest again for subsequent months.
  • Whilst it appears that an employer can choose a monthly or quarterly test period to be used for the DITT, the Fact Sheets suggest that the ATO expects most employers to follow their BAS reporting period.

 Provision of information to the ATO

Despite the above, employers will still be required to provide information on the current monthly turnover and the projected turnover for the following month. This however is not for the purposes of the DITT.

The ES notes:

“The information provided as part of this report does not affect an entity’s eligibility, including in respect of the decline in turnover test (which only needs to be satisfied once). It is also not intended to verify whether the projection given as part of the decline in turnover test was accurate. Rather, it is intended to ensure that there is good information on which to assess the economic impact of the Coronavirus on a monthly basis across Australia.”

 Compliance for employees and employers

To be entitled to a JKP for a fortnight, the employer must have provided the following information to the Commissioner in the approved form:

  • the details of each eligible employee
  • other information about their entitlement to the JKP.

It is anticipated that the following details for each eligible employee will be required to be provided in the approved form:

  • the name of the employee
  • the type of the employee’s employment
  • the employee’s citizenship or residency status.

Once an employer has provided details of its eligible employees to the Commissioner, the employer must also notify each eligible employee within 7 days.

If the information provided to the Commissioner does not subsequently change in the following JobKeeper fortnights, an employer is not required to provide the same information to the Commissioner again. 


Webinar

In this webinar recording our experts Matt Birrell, Simon Tucker, Daren Yeoh and Blake Rodgers answer a number of key questions relating to the JobKeeper Payment, following further clarification provided by the government over the last week.  

View other JobKeeper update webinars here.


How ShineWing Australia can help

There is likely to be a lot of analysis that each business can do internally with the support of Human Resources and the Finance teams to obtain the JobKeeper Payment. But there are also a number of services that ShineWing Australia can provide in order to maximise legitimate claims and provide integrity checks on the data that will be submitted to the ATO.

If you believe that your business is eligible to receive the payment, please reach out to your ShineWing Australia expert to discuss how we can assist, including support with the following:

Turnover decrease

  • Correct classification
  • Alternative testing / rationale for ATO consideration

Data analytics

    • Employee eligibility
    • Top up payments required
    • Cash flow analysis
  • Integrity check on claims with regard to turnover
  • Applications / notifications

 

Contacts

Stephen O’Flynn

E [email protected]

Daniel Minihan

[email protected]

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