Updated : JobKeeper 2.0 – an accountant’s overview
JobKeeper wage subsidies will be extended for those who can continue to prove eligibility. But what’s the fine print? In this article, Chartered Accountant Joe Kaleb provides a summary.
The Government announced on 21 July 2020 that, due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the JobKeeper Payment scheme will be extended by six months until 28 March 2021, from its original end date of 27 September 2020.
The existing JobKeeper Payment will remain in place until 27 September 2020. The rules for accessing the payment under existing eligibility requirements remain unchanged for periods up until 27 September 2020, except for the change to the date of employment to 1 July 2020 that determines employee eligibility (see below).
NB: This article has been updated to reflect changes made to JobKeeper 2.0 as announced by the Government on 7 August 2020.
To be eligible for JobKeeper 2.0, businesses and not-for-profits will still need to demonstrate that they have experienced a decline in turnover of:
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50% for those with an aggregated turnover of more than $1 billion;
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30% for those with an aggregated turnover of $1 billion or less; or
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15% for Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission-registered charities (excluding schools and universities)
On 7 August 2020, the Government announced adjustments to JobKeeper 2.0 to expand the eligibility criteria in the wake of the tougher COVID-19 restrictions imposed in Victoria. These two changes will apply nationwide and are as follows:
1. Adjustments to employee eligibility
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From 3 August 2020, the relevant date of employment to determine eligibility has been extended from 1 March 2020 to 1 July 2020. This is designed to increase employee eligibility for both the existing scheme as well as the new extension period from 28 September 2020.
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Casual employees will still be required to have been employed on a systematic basis for 12 months as is required under the existing scheme.
2. Adjustments to turnover tests
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For the first extension period from 28 September 2020 to 3 January 2021 (phase 1), businesses and not-for-profits will be required to demonstrate that their actual GST turnover has significantly fallen (using the relevant existing decline in turnover tests) in the September 2020 quarter only relative to the corresponding quarter in 2019.
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For the second extension period from 4 January 2021 to 28 March 2021 (phase 2), businesses and not-for-profits will be required to demonstrate that their actual GST turnover has significantly fallen (using the relevant existing decline in turnover tests) in the December 2020 quarter only relative to the corresponding quarter in 2019.
Under the rules announced on 21 July 2020, businesses would have been required to demonstrate that their turnover for the first extension period had fallen in both the June and September quarters, and for the second extension period that their turnover had fallen in all of the June, September and December quarters.
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Reproduced with the permission of MYOB. This article by Joe Kaleb was originally published at https://www.myob.com/au/blog/accountant-summary-jobkeeper-2-0/?utm_source=smfc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sme_au_acq_newsletter_MYOB
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