With the recent economic support funding announced and in particular JobKeeper payments we know you will have some questions when completing your next payroll. Please see below our responses to the most commonly asked questions:
In most cases – No.
As the legislation for the JobKeeper Payments have not been passed by Parliament and is not yet law, we are recommending that businesses do not make additional payments up to the JobKeeper Payment limit of $1,500 per fortnight to their employees.
For the immediate time being, we are recommending that businesses pay their staff for the hours they have worked only.
In order to receive JobKeeper wage reimbursements from the Government, the business must register with the ATO, must have had a 30% reduction in turnover because of COVID-19 and must have eligible employees that are entitled to the payment. Until all of these conditions are met, we are recommending that no JobKeeper top up payments be made.
If you are hoping to be eligible for the JobKeeper allowance you should have already registered your interest. If not, you can do so here: JobKeeper Registration of Interest
This advice will change once the legislation has passed and then more in depth analysis needs to be assessed on how and to whom you will apply these payments.
In some cases employers may want to allocate the $1,500 JobKeeper Payment to their employees because they are 100% certain that they will receive the JobKeeper payment. This could include travel agencies, pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants.
But, consideration needs to be given to cashflow impacts (businesses won’t be reimbursed until the first week of May), as well as staff hours and the impact that a 1 day a week casual may be receiving the same amount as a 4 day a week part timer will have on the part-timers moral to keep working as many hours as they had been in the past.
Further details will be sent out once the legislation has become law.
Please contact us if you have any questions or wish to discuss any of the above matters further. As we have said before, our full team are working remotely from home and are available on our usual phone number (03 8746-7700). We are committed to helping you through this in any way that we can.
