Member Login
The eligibility criteria for the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme will be eased for businesses and employees in response to further restrictions in Melbourne and Regional Victoria, meaning more businesses will be now be eligible. This will be announced by Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenburg today.
The key change is that businesses will only need to show that their GST turnover has fallen over one quarter to qualify, rather than multiple as was determined as part of the recent extension of the scheme.
Employees on the payroll at 1 July will also now be eligible, rather than the 1 March for the initial tranche of JobKeeper payments. Reduced payments previously announced for the second and third stage of jobkeeper will remain, with $1200 fortnightly payments from September 28 for employees working more than 20 hours per week, reducing to $1000 From January 4 to March 28, 2021.
The initial JobKeeper will end on September 28, and the extension comes into play from that date. Businesses will be eligible for the extension if they can show their GST turnover had fallen in the September quarter compared to the same quarter in 2019 (when first announced, a loss in June and September 2020 quarters was required). The level of reduction required to be eligible remains the same:
- 50 per cent for those with an aggregated turnover of more than $1 billion;
- 30 per cent for those with an aggregated turnover of $1 billion or less; or
- 15 per cent for Australian Charities and Not for profits Commission-registered charities (excluding schools and universities).
The same criteria change will apply to the second extension that is scheduled from January 4. This means businesses will need to show a GST turnover loss for the December 2020 quarter as compared to 2019 to qualify, rather than a loss for June, September and December originally required to be eligible. The level of reduction for eligibility will remain.
Further information on the JobKeeper extension will be available on the Treasury website once it is formally announced later today, in the meantime you can check his summary document for more information. These changes will apply nationally.
