What is JobKeeper
It is a monthly reimbursement payment made to businesses by the ATO to subsidise wages amount paid. Under this scheme, eligible businesses will receive $1,500 per fortnight for each eligible employee. It is quite a significant amount and will be paid to businesses impacted by the coronavirus for a maximum period of 6 months from 30 March 2020 to 27 September 2020.
How do you get this JobKeeper payment
If your business is eligible and you wish to claim, here are the steps to take:
1. Enrol your business with the ATO or contact your Accountant or Bookkeeper to enrol on your behalf. To enrol for the first month being April, this needs to be done by 31 May 2020.
2. Set up Single Touch Payroll to make regular reporting to the ATO much easier and simpler. Cloud accounting software such as Xero is perfect for this.
3. Offer all eligible employees to participate in the JobKeeper scheme and enrol them with their permission. There is a prescribed form called Employee Nomination Notice issued by ATO for this purpose.
4. Pay all nominated employees a minimum of $1,500 each fortnight. If you enrol for April, payment is required to be made to all employees by 8 May 2020. Reimbursement will be made monthly in arrears by the ATO.
5. Report payroll payment information to the ATO via Single Touch Reporting after each pay run.
6. Complete monthly declaration with the ATO.
There are quite a number of criteria such as the dates above which require certain actions to be completed in order to qualify for this assistance. Here is the link to more information provided by the ATO on JobKeeper .It is a good idea to speak to the ATO or a professional Accountant if you still need help with the whole process and to ensure you don’t miss out.
