Warrnambool Accountants explain the steps for businesses to apply for JobKeeper

Posted on 14/04/2020 by Sinclair Wilson in COVID-19, News, Tax & Business Advice

The ATO has this afternoon issued instructions outlining how businesses can enrol for the JobKeeper payment (keeping in mind they cannot enrol with the ATO until 20 April 2020.)

A business or a registered tax professional can enrol for the JobKeeper payment via the following steps:

  • Step 1 – Contact your Accountant so you can begin investigating whether your business is eligible. As an employer, you need to be able to prove your business revenue has fallen by 30% (or if you are a not-for-profit, by 15%) from a comparable period last year. You should speak with your Accountant to determine this, keeping in mind the ATO is still finalising eligibility criteria.
  • Step 2 – Register your interest and subscribe for JobKeeper payment updates.
  • Step 3 – Check you and your employees meet the eligibility requirements. We can help you with this if you aren’t sure.
  • Step 4 – Continue to pay at least $1,500 to each eligible employee per JobKeeper fortnight (the first JobKeeper fortnight is the period from 30 March to 12 April).
  • Step 5 – Notify your eligible employees that you are intending to claim the JobKeeper payment on their behalf and check they aren’t claiming JobKeeper payment through another employer or have nominated through another business.
  • Step 6 – Send the JobKeeper employee nomination notice to your nominated employees to complete and return to you by the end of April if you plan to claim JobKeeper payment for April. Keep it on file and provide a copy to your Sinclair Wilson Accountant.
  • Step 7 – From 20 April 2020, you can enrol with the ATO for the JobKeeper payment using the Business Portal and authenticate with myGovID. You must do this by the end of April to claim JobKeeper payments for April. Contact us to help you through this process – we are here to help
  • Step 8 – In the online form, you will then provide your bank details and indicate if you are claiming an entitlement based on business participation, for example if you are a sole trader. If you aren’t sure about this, we are on-hand to help you through the process. Contact our Accountants for assistance.
  • Step 9 – Specify the estimated number of employees who will be eligible for the first JobKeeper fortnight (30 March – 12 April) and the second JobKeeper fortnight (13 April – 26 April).

Before you enrol for the JobKeeper Payment, you need to complete the JobKeeper employee nomination notice to:

  • notify your eligible employees that they intend to participate in the scheme
  • ask employees if they agree to be nominated and receive payments from you as part of the scheme.

If you aren’t sure about how to identify your eligible employees, contact us. We have a HR and Payroll division that works closely with our Accounting team to ensure our clients have the most up- to-date information, and expertise on hand, and are able to claim what they deserve to help them through the COVID-19 crisis.

Next steps:

Note that you should not use the JobKeeper employee nomination notice if you intend to claim JobKeeper payments for an eligible business participant, for example:

  • a partner in a partnership
  • an adult beneficiary of a trust
  • a shareholder or director of a company
  • a sole trader.

A different nomination process for these will be required. We will provide you with this information as it comes to hand.

If you need more information about what assistance you, or your business, might be entitled to, contact your Sinclair Wilson Advisor – we are here to help.

The information contained in this blog post is general information only.

It may not apply to your circumstances, and is not legal advice.

Seek advice from a suitably qualified professional before acting upon any of the detail in this blog post.