Economic Stimulus Package Updates

Recently, the Australian Government announced that the JobKeeper program is effectively helping businesses to retain their employees. If your business currently receives JobKeeper, JobKeeper payments at the current rate of $1,500 per eligible employee will continue unchanged until 27 September 2020.

JobKeeper – REMINDER

As a business owner, you may be eligible to access JobKeeper, a temporary wage subsidy, enabling businesses to pay each eligible employee $1,500 per fortnight until 27 September 2020.

If you carried on a business in Australia and employed at least one person within your business on 1 March 2020, then your business is eligible for JobKeeper if it meets the basic decline in turnover test.

Under the basic turnover test, a comparison is made between your business’s GST turnover in a defined 2020 period compared with the same period 12 months prior.

A 30 per cent decline for businesses with a GST turnover of $1 billion or less is required to meet the test. Check your business’s eligibility using these five steps: https://www.ato.gov.au/General/JobKeeper-Payment/In-detail/JobKeeper-tests/Applying-the-turnover-test/?page=2#Basic_test

If you would like YML to manage the JobKeeper Incentive process for you, please do the following urgently: 

1. Click on the link below to engage us and provide us with your bank account details
https://app.hellosign.com/s/JTYX1jRe

2. Click the link below if you are a business owner – and not an employee – for you to receive JobKeeper
https://app.hellosign.com/s/Hu4BQXtt

3. Provide the link below to your employees so that we can collate the employee information required for you to receive JobKeeper (you will also need to provide your employees with your ABN)
https://app.hellosign.com/s/JhE06wTy

Please note that eligibility for JobKeeper payments stopped from 20 July for:

1. employees of an approved provider of childcare services where the employee's ordinary duties are that they are principally engaged in the operation of the childcare centre
2. eligible business participants where the business entity is an approved provider of a childcare service

NEW JobKeeper 2.0 – What you need to know

The extended JobKeeper wage subsidy program – JobKeeper 2.0 – will commence on 28 September and run until 28 March 2021.

Additional JobKeeper 2.0 eligibility testing will be conducted due to tighter access of the reduced JobKeeper rates during the second phase of the program. Employers of eligible businesses will need to reassess their eligibility at the end of September 2020 and again in early January 2021.

Turnover Decline Test

Business owners will be required to demonstrate actual decline in revenue against the comparable prior period/s in 2019, rather than use forecasts. Actual GST turnover decline must be shown to be at least 30 per cent for both the June and September quarters to be eligible for JobKeeper payments from 28 September 2020. Similarly, continuing actual GST turnover decline of at least 30 per cent for the December quarter must be shown to be eligible for JobKeeper payments from 4 January 2021 up until 28 March 2021.

Reduced JobKeeper Rates

JobKeeper 2.0 will be based on the hours worked by employees in the four weeks prior to 1 March 2020. There will be two tiers of JobKeeper rates:

High Tier – $1,200 per fortnight until 3 January 2021, reducing thereafter to $1,000 per fortnight – for those employees who worked 20 hours or more per week.

Low Tier – $750 per fortnight until 3 January 2021, reducing thereafter to $650 per fortnight – for those employees who worked fewer than 20 hours per week.

Under JobKeeper 2.0 employers will pay a greater proportion of their employees’ wages because the minimum wage condition will still apply.

If you would like YML to manage the NEW JobKeeper 2.0 Incentive process for you, please do the following urgently:

Click on the link below to engage us and provide us with your bank account details

https://app.hellosign.com/s/AQ4JJwKc

NSW Small Business Recovery Grant

The NSW Government has launched its Small Business Recovery Grant scheme to assist small business owners to reopen and/or upscale their businesses as part of NSW’s economic recovery. Eligible businesses may receive a grant of between $500 and $3,000.

To ease the pressure of re-opening or revitalising a business, the up-to-$3,000 cash grant may be used towards paying post-1 July 2020 business costs, including:

• Premises fit-out changes
• Staff training – safe work practices in COVID-19 conditions
• Cleaning products and services
• Marketing expenses
• Advertising costs
• IT upgrades

Eligibility

On 1 March 2020, you must:

• Be a small business or not-for-profit organisation based in NSW and have an ABN registered in NSW;
• Have an annual turnover of more than $75,000 (BAS is used as evidence);
• Employ fewer than 20 full-time equivalent employees;
• Have paid 2019-20 payroll tax below the $900,000 threshold;
• Be a highly-impacted industry (Public Health Order (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) 2020) See Attachment A https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/small-business-covid-19-recovery-grant-guidelines#attachment-a-list-of-highly-impacted-industries; and
• Have post-1 July 2020 costs associated with reopening or upscaling your business.

Note: You may be eligible to receive the up-to-$3,000 Small Business Recovery Grant even if you have already received the up-to-$10,000 COVID-19 Small Business Support Grant.

Applications close at 11:59pm on Sunday 16 August 2020. Late applications will not be accepted.

If you would like YML to manage the NSW Small Business Recovery Grant process for you, please do the following urgently:

Click on the link below to engage us and provide us with your bank account details

https://app.hellosign.com/s/4KgGReKO

How can YML help?

We hope that this guide helps you to access the JobKeeper Payment scheme and NSW Small Business Recovery Grant scheme independently if that is your preference.  Alternatively, please talk to our Accountants today if you would like to engage YML Chartered Accountants to manage these applications on your behalf. Contact us on (02) 8383 4400 or by visiting the Contact Us page on our website.