September 8, 2020
Extension of the Jobkeeper Payment
On 1st September 2020 the legislation for Jobkeeper 2 was passed through Parliament and we have summarised the important bits as follows:
- The rules will apply from 28th September 2020.
- To qualify eligible businesses with turnover less than $1bn will need to show a decline in turnover of 30% using actual GST turnover (rather than projected GST turnover).
- Eligible businesses will need to demonstrate that their GST turnover has fallen in the September quarter 2020 (July, August, September) relative to a comparable period (generally the corresponding quarter in 2019).
- Employees who worked for 80 hours or more in the four weeks of pay periods before either 1 March 2020 or 1 July 2020 will receive $1,200 per fortnight, while all other employees will receive $750.
- Businesses currently enrolled in Jobkeeper will not need to re-enrol for Jobkeeper 2, nor will they need to provide an employee nomination notice again.
- There will be no changes to the original and ongoing Jobkeeper program which runs until 27th September 2020.
- The period of extension of Jobkeeper is 28th September 2020 to 3rd January 2021. There is a further extension period following 3rd January 2021,however, we will provide further commentary on this at a later time.
- Businesses will need to assess their eligibility for Jobkeeper 2 in advance of the BAS deadline in order to meet the wage condition (which requires them to pay their eligible employees in advance of them receiving the Jobkeeper payment).
- The new legislation will also allow legacy employers – those that previously qualified for Jobkeeper but are unable to qualify for Jobkeeper 2 – to continue to access temporary Fair Work Act provisions for a further six month if they are experiencing a 10 per cent decline in turnover. These temporary Fair Work Act provisions include enabling directions or requests for employees to change their days or times of work. There is no payment attached to this part of the legislation.
- Accountants can provide a 10 per cent decline in turnover certificate for eligible businesses. Note: There will be a carve-out for small businesses with fewer than 15 employees to allow such employers to provide a statutory declaration to attest to the 10 per cent decline.
You can read more about the Jobkeeper extension here.
