Recently the situation with COVID-19 has improved, today, the number of new cases in New South Wales is just one, while in Victoria, the number has reached the lowest in the past 3 months of only 170. Australian Federal Government had signed an agreement with the Oxford University Research Centre in Britain to have the right to produce the COVID-19 vaccine domestically, and the Vaccine should be ready by the end of the year if not early next year. The federal government had hinted that they would force 95% of the Australian Population to be vaccinated, if people do not want to be vaccinated, then they might lose government benefits such as jobkeeper payment.
The JobKeeper payment has been extended to March 2021. It is supposed to end by the end of September.
The Government announced it is extending the JobKeeper Payment until 28 March 2021 and is targeting support to those businesses and not-for-profits which continue to be significantly impacted by the Coronavirus.
Therefore, there will be two periods for Job Keeper, which include:
- 28/09/2020-03/01/2021 (seven Fortnightly Payment)
- 04/01/2021-28/03/2021 (six Fortnightly Payment）
There will be some changes to employee eligibility, which include:
- To claim JobKeeper payments for the August JobKeeper fortnights, including for newly eligible employees involved in the Jobkeeper scheme under the 1 July eligibility test, you must enroll for JobKeeper by 31 August. Hence if you have not enrolled, please come and talk to us, as one of the most experienced and professional accountants and tax agents in Ashfield Sydney and Adelaide, we will be able to help you. Please give us a call at 1800 841 312, or email us to hello@endurego.com
- you were employed by the eligible employer (or another entity in their wholly-owned group), either as a non-casual employee (whether full-time, part-time, or fixed-term) or long-term casual employee (employed on a regular and systematic basis during the 12-month period that ended 1 July) and you were not a permanent employee of any other employer
- you were aged 18 years or older (if you were 16 or 17 you can also qualify if you were independent or not undertaking full-time study on 1 July 2020)
- you were either an Australian resident (within the meaning of the Social Security Act 1991) – see residence descriptions External Link on the Services Australia website or an Australian resident for the purpose of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 and the holder of a Subclass 444 (Special Category) visa
It is also important to note that in order to apply for part 2 and part 3 of the Jobkeeper payment, it is important to have a 30% decrease (i.e. for small businesses with sales less than 1 billion dollars) in sales between July to September 2020 with the July to September 2019, and also October to December 2020 with the October to December 2019. The sales can also exclude the jobkeeper payment received during the period.
There will be some changes in business eligibility, which include:
- From 28/09/2020, businesses and not-for-profits seeking to claim JobKeeper Payment will be required to re-assess their eligibility for the JobKeeper extension with reference to their actual turnover in the September quarter 2020. Businesses and not-for-profits will need to demonstrate that they have met the relevant decline in turnover test in this quarter to be eligible for JobKeeper from 28 September 2020 to 3 January 2021.
- Businesses and not-for-profits will need to further reassess their eligibility in January 2021 for the period from 4 January to 28 March 2021. Businesses and not-for-profits will need to demonstrate that they have met the relevant decline in turnover test in the December quarter of 2020 to remain eligible for the March quarter 2021.
The payment rate is as follows:
It is important to note that there will be two periods of the Jobkeeper payment. The first part will be between 28 September 2002 to 03 January 2021. The payment to the employee is as follows:
If the employee is working in the business or not-for-profit for 20 hours or more a week on average, then the payment will be $1200 per fortnight.
If the employee is working in the business for less than 20 hours, then the payment will be decreased to $750 per fortnight.
The second part of the jobkeeper payment is between 04 January 2021 to 28 March 2020. The payment rate is as follows:
If your employee is working in the business or not-for-profit for 20 hours or more a week on average, then the rate of payment of Jobkeeper will be $1000 per fortnight.
If your employee is working in the business for less than 20 hours per week, then the payment rate will be decreased to $650 per fortnight.
Some people might ask, how then can we assess the 20 hours per fortnight definition? In accordance with the rule, you need to take the average working hours between 1 March 2020 to 1 July 2020 to work out the average fortnight working hours.
As the most experienced and professional accountant and tax agent in Ashfied Inner West Sydney and Adelaide, we are here to help you with the JobKeeper Payment, please give us a call at 1800 841 312, or email us at hello@endurego.com.
