An important update for businesses who have enrolled for JobKeeper or are planning to enrol.
The ATO has released details of the 3 steps to be completed to successfully receive the JobKeeper payment.
Step 1: Enrol
for the JobKeeper payment (available from 20 April)
Step 2: Identify
and maintain your eligible employees (available from 4 May)
You must identify each person you will claim the JobKeeper payment for.
Step 3: Make
a business monthly declaration (also available from 4 May)
You must provide information as to your current (April month) and
projected (May month) turnover.
Plus confirm if your eligible employees change or leave your employment.
For further details see ATO
Jobkeeper hub or please feel free to give your Ashfords Advisor a call.
Eligible business owners operating as a sole trader, partnership, through a trust or company can also access the JobKeeper program if they qualify as an eligible business participant who is actively engaged in the business carried on by an entity.
The eligible business entity must also qualify in the same way as an eligible employer, i.e. it must meet the decline in turnover test and not be an excluded entity. The eligible business participant (other than a sole trader) must agree to be nominated, and can do so using the ATO’s nomination notice for eligible business participants. The business entity is only entitled to receive the JobKeeper payment in relation to one eligible business participant and it is up to the business to determine which individual is nominated as the eligible business participant.
Note that the entity, not the eligible business participant, receives the JobKeeper payment (other than in the case of a sole trader who
is both the business entity and eligible business participant).
In other news, the Victorian Government has launched the $500 million Business Support Fund to help small businesses survive the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and keep people in work.
The Fund is part of the Victorian Government’s $1.7
billion Economic Survival Package
established to provide $10,000 grants to eligible small businesses. The eligibility criteria is outlined in below link and a copy of
the guidelines can
be downloaded for more information.
Note: on 1 May 2020 the
Victorian Government announced that the criteria will be expanded
(Supporting More Businesses
Doing It Tough)
to include businesses with a wages bill less than the payroll tax threshold of $650,000 that are participating in the Commonwealth
Government’s JobKeeper program, regardless of the sector they operate in. Previous applicants who were ineligible based on their sector
classification will be contacted and do not have to submit a new application.
For further details please feel free to give your Ashfords Advisor a call.
