Once again the ATO was busy late Friday making further announcements regarding the JobKeeper scheme. The most welcomed was that application deadline to enrol for JobKeeper has been extended until the end of May. Although eligible businesses will need to ensure they have paid eligible employees the required $1,500 fortnightly payments for April by the end of April, they have until the end of May to enrol and apply for the JobKeeper payments to receive backdated payments starting fro 30 March.

In an added bonus, the ATO has also announced that businesses can still be eligible for the first two fortnights of JobKeeper payments if they pay the minimum $1,500 for each of those fortnights (effectively $3,000 in gross wages) to eligible employees by 8 May. This extends the deadline from the previously released date of end of April.

The other welcomed announcements was an extension to the alternate tests the ATO will apply for impacted businesses who for a variety of reasons may not satisfy the primary reduction in turnover test. The ATO announced a further test to apply for service entities (i.e. those entities that are separately created to house the payroll of a larger business group). In effect these entities will be eligible for JobKeeper payments if their associated related business entity has suffered the required drop in turnover. This is a common sense decision and ensures impacted businesses with this common  structure are able to access the payments.

If you need assistance with your JobKeeper applications, please do not hesitate to contact us.