On 7 August 2020, the Government made amendments to the previously announced extension of JobKeeper, which will ease the eligibility criteria and increase the number of employees and employers that qualify for JobKeeper.
The two major changes cover the:
- relevant date of employment for eligible employees, and
- method of calculating the decline in turnover for businesses.
Relevant date of employment for eligible employees
From 3 August 2020, the relevant date of employment to determine eligible employees will change from the originally announced date of 1 March to 1 July 2020. This means that new employees since 1 March 2020 may be eligible if they were employed on 1 July 2020
Furthermore, determining an employee’s tier of payment will be based on the two fortnightly pay periods prior to 1 March 2020 or 1 July 2020. For employees who were eligible at 1 March 2020, the period with the higher number of hours is used when determining the tier.
Decline in turnover test
The reference period to show a decline in actual GST turnover was also amended.
For the first phase of the JobKeeper extension during 28 September 2020 to 3 January 2021, businesses will need to have a significant fall in actual GST turnover in the September 2020 quarter only (compared to the September 2019), rather than the June and September 2020 quarters as originally announced.
During the second phase of the JobKeeper extension from 4 January to 28 March 2021, businesses will need to have a significant fall in actual GST turnover in the December 2020 quarter only (compared to December 2019), rather than the June, September and December 2020 quarters as originally announced.
Please contact Integrity One if we can assist you with this or any other financial matter.
Phone: (03) 9723 0522
Suite 2, 1 Railway Crescent
Croydon, Victoria 3136
Email: integrityone@iplan.com.au
This information is of a general nature and does not take into consideration anyone’s individual circumstances or objectives. Financial Planning activities only are provided by Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd as a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 315000 of Integrity Financial Planners Pty Ltd ABN 71 069 537 855 AFSL 225051. Integrity One Planning Services Pty Ltd and Integrity One Accounting and Business Advisory Services Pty Ltd are not liable for any financial loss resulting from decisions made based on this information. Please consult your adviser, finance specialist, broker, and/or accountant before making decisions using this information.