A further stimulus measure was announced by the government yesterday – The Job Keeper Payment.
This measure is designed to help employers retain more staff throughout the crisis, which in turn will enable businesses to resume normal operations as quickly and efficiently as possible, when the Covid-19 crisis eases.
The payment is a subsidy of $1,500 per fortnight per employee administered by the ATO. Under the requirements of the package, any eligible employee earning less than the amount of the subsidy is still to be paid the $1,500 as a gross wage. The subsidy is limited to a 6 month period.
At this stage, as per the attached fact sheets you will be eligible if:
- Your turnover for at least a month is reduced by 30% against the same period last year or 50% if your turnover is greater than $1billion (they are yet to confirm how this is calculated).
- The employees were employed as at 1 March 2020 and are still employed. Those who may have been stood down, can be re-hired. Employees can be full time, part time or long term casuals (i.e. a casual employed on a regular basis for longer than 12 months as at 1 March 2020).
- Employees must be over 16 years, Australian citizens, or the holders of a permanent visa, a Protected Special Category Visa Holder, a non-protected Special Category Visa Holder who has been residing continually in Australia for 10 years or more, or a Special Category (Subclass 444) Visa Holder; and
- Employees must not already be in receipt of JobKeeper payment from another employer.
The JobKeeper payment is taxable as income to your employees and may affect their eligibility for any other Centrelink payment. Superannuation at a rate of 9.5% will continue to be payable if your employee earns over $1,500 gross per fortnight. If your employee earns under $1,500 gross per fortnight, you can choose whether to pay superannuation at 9.5% on the additional amount paid.
The JobKeeper Payment can be claimed from 30 March 2020 for a maximum of 6 months. Note the first payment once approved will not be until May 2020, but will be back-dated.
You can register your interest per the following link and further updates will be provided. If eligible you will need to notify your employee that you intend to claim the payment on their behalf.
https://www.ato.gov.au/general/gen/JobKeeper-payment/
Also attached is a link to fact sheet for employees.
https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/Fact_sheet_Info_for_Employees_0.pdf
Please note that The JobKeeper Payment is yet to be legislated, so there may be changes once taken to Parliament. These will be notified to you if you register per above, and we will of course be keeping track of any changes as they progress.
If you need any assistance with this, please contact your Client Manager or Partner at Enspira Financial or call 1300 908 558.
Kind regards,
The team at Enspira Financial