JobKeeper payments: your questions answered

• What is the JobKeeper payment?
  The Rules confirm the Government will provide eligible businesses with a flat payment of $1,500 (before tax) per fortnight for each eligible employee. The Rules also confirm the payment will be available between 30 March 2020 and 27 September 2020, 26 weeks in total. The payment is designed to help businesses suffering reduced turnover to cover the costs of their employees’ wages, keep people in their jobs and maintain employer-employee connections so that businesses can reactivate operations quickly without having to rehire staff once the pandemic is over.
• Which employers are eligible for the JobKeeper payment?
  Example set out in the Rules: Patrick Enterprises assesses its eligibility for JobKeeper payments on 6 April 2020 based on a projected GST turnover for April 2020 of $6 million. It considers that the comparable period is the month of April 2019 for which it had a current GST turnover of $10 million. The April 2020 turnover falls short of the April 2019 turnover by $4 million, which is 40 percent of the April 2019 turnover. This exceeds the specified percentage, so the decline in turnover test is satisfied. If an employer qualifies for the JobKeeper payments for the first fortnight because its turnover has declined by the relevant amount, ATO guidance says it will remain eligible and does not need to keep testing turnover in following months (although there will be ongoing monthly reporting requirements).
• How and when are JobKeeper payments made?
  An eligible employer or Eligible Entity will be paid $1,500 per fortnight per eligible employee or Business Participant. These payments will be made by the Australia Taxation Office (ATO) by no later than the later of: 14 days after the end of the calendar month in which the fortnight ends 14 days after all requirements are met by the eligible employer or Eligible Entity. This means that if an eligible employer or Eligible Entity satisfies all of the requirements, the earliest it will be paid for the fortnight commencing 30 March 2020 (and the fortnight commencing 13 April 2020) is likely to be early-mid May 2020.
• What if I have made my employees redundant? Can the JobKeeper Payment assist me?
  If you have already made an employee redundant, you can choose to re-employ them and stand them down as an alternative. If entitlements were already paid out, employees will likely be entitled to retain severance payments which they received on termination, though employers may seek to negotiate terms upon which they may be able to re-hire retrenched employees, taking care to always comply with applicable industrial instruments. This situation is likely to be treated in the same manner as though they have been re-employed. Specific advice should be sought in these circumstances as some entitlements may be treated as if service was continuous. In addition, an employer will only be eligible to claim JobKeeper payments for the fortnights after it re-engaged its employee.