Enrolment opens for JobKeeper

Enrolment is now open for the government’s $130 billion JobKeeper Payment scheme. The scheme is to support businesses significantly affected by the coronavirus to help keep more Australians in jobs.

The JobKeeper payment is open to eligible employers, sole traders, and other entities to enable them to pay their eligible employee’s salary or wages of at least $1500 (before tax) per fortnight.

You can enrol for the JobKeeper payment through the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) Business Portal, in ATO online services using myGov if you are a sole trader, or through a registered tax or business activity statements (BAS) agent.

Eligible employers will be reimbursed a fixed amount of $1500 per fortnight for each eligible employee.

Employers need to pay all eligible employees a minimum of $1500 (before tax) per fortnight to claim the JobKeeper payment. This will be paid to the employer in arrears each month by the ATO. The first payments to eligible employers will commence in the first week of May 2020. JobKeeper payments can be made for the period beginning 30 March 2020.

If employers do not continue to pay their employees for each pay period, they will cease to qualify for the JobKeeper payment.

To be eligible for the JobKeeper payment, employers and their employees must meet a range of criteria.

Employers
In order to receive JobKeeper payments from the first week of May, employers need to:

have paid their eligible employees a minimum of $1500 per fortnight (before tax) for the period between 30 March and the end of April. The payments for the first two fortnights need to be made by the end of April to receive the JobKeeper payment in the first week of May.
meet all eligibility requirements, as outlined on the ATO’s website.
enrol in the JobKeeper Payment program, once the enrolment process is opened on 20 April.

When enrolment is submitted to the ATO, it will provide an acknowledgement and acceptance of the enrolment into the JobKeeper program based on the information provided.

Employers are encouraged to discuss their businesses’ eligibility and participation in JobKeeper with their employees.

Employees
The JobKeeper payments will flow from the ATO to employers, rather than directly to employees.

Employees wanting to know whether their employer will be enrolling in JobKeeper should speak to their employer and fill out the employee nomination form.

Employees can also find out more information about the program on the ATO’s website.

For more information on how this could affect you, visit the below: