Attention Employers on JobKeeper

13th August 2020

Adjustment to the date of employment

Last week, the government announced a key adjustment to the date of employment for determining which employees are covered by JobKeeper. The effective date has been extended from 1 March 2020 to 1 July 2020.
The changes have been detailed on the Treasury’s fact sheets for both JobKeeper 1.0 and 2.0. The Treasurer has yet to issue a legislative instrument to reflect the changes.
According to several professional bodies’ interpretations, if legislated, the proposed change of date applies to JobKeeper 1.0 from 3 August 2020 , or FN 10 under the JobKeeper calendar.
You may have new employees that were not eligible and will become eligible under the proposed changes. For example, a permanent employee hired between 1 March 2020 and 30 June 2020, or a casual employee that commenced between 1 March 2019 and 30 June 2019 and is employed as of 30th June 2020.
Whist we wait for this to be legislated, we suggest you review your business payroll and identify such employees that you may need to include in JobKeeper 1.0 from 3 August 2020 to comply with the “one in, all in” rule.

August 2020 payroll processing

We draw your attention to the payroll processing for the month of August 2020 for employers claiming Jobkeeper.
As you are probably aware the August Jobkeeper claim includes 3 fortnights (as defined by the ATO = includes your ordinary pay cycle that ends within that period) i.e.

Fortnight 9: 20 July - 2 August
Fortnight 10: 3 August - 16 August
Fortnight 11: 17 August - 30 August

If your pay cycle is fortnightly you should already be ensuring the minimum of $1500 per eligible employee is paid each fortnight.
However, if your pay cycle is different, for instance monthly, we recommended to review your August payroll before 30th August and ensure the minimum pay for each eligible employee is met under the JobKeeper requirements.

For example,

If your payroll cycle is weekly or fortnightly and you have been paying each eligible employee at least $750 gross per week or at least $1,500 gross per fortnight, you shall continue to do so every week or fortnight;
If your payroll cycle is monthly and you have been paying each eligible employee at least $3,250 gross per month since April, you shall continue to pay each eligible employees at least $3,250 in August;
However, If your pay cycle is monthly, and you have paid each eligible employee $3,000 gross each month in April, May, June and July, you should process at least $4,500 gross pay in August for each eligible employee.

Important: Clients should not act solely on the basis of the material contained in this newsletter. Items herein are general comments only and do not constitute or convey advice per se. Also changes in legislation may occur quickly. We therefore recommend that our formal advice be sought before acting in any of the areas. Client Alert is issued as a helpful guide to clients and for their private information. Therefore it should be regarded as confidential and not be made available to any person without our prior approval.