On 21 July 2020, the Government announced an extension until 28 March 2021 – labelled JobKeeper 2.0 - to the JobKeeper programme. However, the Stage 4 restrictions in Victoria resulted in the Government on 7 August 2020 announcing further changes – JobKeeper 2.1 – to the JobKeeper and JobKeeper 2.0 programmes.
Currently, most of the details of JobKeeper 2.0 and 2.1 are contained in fact sheets on the Treasury website (here). As the current JobKeeper programme showed, the ‘devil is in the detail’ (including the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) administration of that detail), so we will prepare a comprehensive article when the amending legislation is introduced into Parliament (which cannot be before 24 August 2020).
In the interim, one change in JobKeeper 2.1 concerns eligible employees.
From 3 August 2020, the relevant date of employment moves from 1 March 2020 to 1 July 2020 meaning eligible employees will be those:
that were eligible employees based upon the 1 March 2020 test; or
were employed on 1 July 2020 on a full-time, part-time, fixed term, or >12 month casual basis
If the employee first started work with their current employer after 1 July 2020, the employer will not be eligible to claim the JobKeeper payment on the employee’s behalf.
Employers must meet the wage condition (>=$1,500 per fortnight) for employees from 3 August 2020 to be eligible to claim JobKeeper for those employees. For the fortnights commencing on 3 August 2020 and 17 August 2020, the ATO is allowing employers until 31 August 2020 to meet the wage condition for all new eligible employees under the 1 July 2020 eligibility test.
The current JobKeeper Rules prevent an individual from being an eligible employee of an employer if the individual has completed a nomination for another employer. The ATO has confirmed that if a (previously nominated) individual commenced work with their current employer before 1 July 2020 (but after 1 March 2020), the current employer can only nominate that employee for JobKeeper fortnights starting on or after 3 March 2020 if the employee stopped being an employee of their previous employer.
For more information please contact:
Neil Brydges
Principal Lawyer | Accredited Specialist in Tax Law
M +61 407 821 157 | T +61 3 9611 0176
E nbrydges@sladen.com.au
Daniel Smedley
Principal | Accredited Specialist in Tax Law
M +61 411 319 327| T +61 3 9611 0105
E: dsmedley@sladen.com.au
Rob Warnock
Principal Lawyer
M +61 419 892 115 | T +61 3 9611 0155
E: rwarnock@sladen.com.au
