Businesses now able to claim JobKeeper for new employees
Posted on 18th August 2020 by Tom Francis
On August 14th Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced further changes to the JobKeeper rules to allow businesses to claim the subsidy in respect of new employees who were employed on or before 1 July 2020 and are not currently nominated for JobKeeper by another entity.
The changes apply to JobKeeper fortnights beginning on or after 3 August 2020.
Under the changes, the reference date for assessing which employees are eligible for the JobKeeper payment is now 1 July 2020 rather than 1 March 2020.
The ATO has confirmed that for fortnights commencing on 3 August and 17 August 2020, employers will have until 31 August 2020 to meet the wage condition for all new eligible employees who are now included in the JobKeeper scheme under the 1 July 2020 eligibility test.
This means employers will have until 31 August to ensure any new employees at 1 July have received at least $3,000 of wages. The wage condition remains $1,500 per fortnight until JobKeeper 1.0 ends on 28th September. The ATO has warned that employers will lose JobKeeper if this catch up payment isn’t made by 31 August under the ‘one in, all in’ rule.
It is important to remember the one in all in rule which states If you decide to participate in the JobKeeper payment scheme, you must nominate all your eligible employees which now includes those employed at 1 July. To satisfy this, all new employees at 1 July have to be registered with JobKeeper and the employer’s payroll system must have been updated to reflect this by this Friday 21st August.
Another very positive change relates to the ability for an employee to re-nominate with a new employer (which was previously not allowed). Broadly, if an individual was a 1 March 2020 an employee of another entity but is not employed by that entity at any time from the start of 1 July 2020, then the individual is now permitted to give a nomination notice to a new employer. The same applies for eligible business participants, as applicable.
If any of the new relief packages impact you or to discuss eligibility and application, please contact one of our Team on (08) 9316 7000.
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