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Definition
The Government has passed additional legislation to provide wage subsidies to businesses significantly affected by COVID-19. This subsidy is called the JobKeeper payment and is intended to be paid directly to employers by the Australian Taxation Office, who then provides the payment to their employees. The JobKeeper Payment of $1,500 earnings (before tax) per fortnight is paid to the employer as a supplement to assist with the payment of salary and wages and will be paid in arrears commencing from May 2020 for a maximum of six (6) months, with payments backdated from 30 March 2020.
Q6 makes no assumptions as to whether a business is eligible for JobKeeper subsidies. It is the employer's responsibility to determine eligibility. For more information about the subsidy and business eligibility, refer here.
Key Date
By 30 April: Notify employees and receive completed employee notification forms
From 20 April: Enrol for JobKeeper payment
By 8 May: Pay your employees to claim JobKeeper payments for April
By 31 May: Last date to enrol for JobKeeper payment
From 4 May & onwards: Submit monthly declaration and notify ATO of turnover
31 May: Last day to declare
Here is a list of payment deadline dates you will need to meet in order to be able to claim JobKeeper for each fortnight...
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How to record Jobkeeper payment in Q6?
There are 3 components when it comes to recording JobKeeper payments. These include:
Topping up employee gross earnings to $1500 per fortnight ("top-up");
Notifying the ATO when an eligible employee commenced being paid JobKeeper payments ("fortnight start");
Notifying the ATO when an employee is no eligible for JobKeeper and hence ceases to be paid JobKeeper payments ("fortnight finish").
For all eligible employees (ATO provide detailed information on assessing employee eligibility - this can be accessed here.), first thing to do in Q6 is to notify ATO through Q6 Single Touch Payroll portal by following these steps.
Step 1: go to Dashboard -> Report-> Single Touch Payroll Reporting -> Jobkeeper Payments.
Step 2: select eligible emplyee, then choose the pay period that starts on First Jobkeeper fortnight.
Step 3: once all has been selected, click "Send STP to ATO"
Step 4: go back to Reports tab, to check the sending progress.
Step 5: check Log for reported info.
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Check the report section for sending progress, if the Status column is failed or Partial, it means there are issues with sending data, which is not compatible with ATO's requirements, click the drop down arrow for details.
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Once you have notified the ATO following the above five steps, you may need to follow different scenarios as below.
Scenario A: Eligible employee earnings are more than $1,500 per fortnight before tax
User does not need to do anything other than run Batch Pay Run as nomal, with the usual superannuation payment to be issued accordingly.
Scenario B: Eligible employee earnings are less than $1,500 per fortnight before tax
If the employee’s earnings are less than $1,500 per fortnight, then continue to pay the employee all earnings and include all entitlements to leave accrual and superannuation as you usually would. In this scenario, a "top-up" is required to ensure the employee earns a minimum $1,500 gross earnings in the fortnight.
To do this, user needs to follow these steps .
Step 1: go to Dashboard -> Settings -> Pay Item List -> Add New.
Step 2: type in "Job Keeper Topup" as Wages Name, and select "Allowance-Other" for ATO STP Reporting Category, make sure you tick "Is Job Keeper Topup Payment"
Step 3: click Save to save this additional Pay Item for Batch Pay Run preparation
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Step 4: when you start on the Batch Pay Run, manually input any amount to add up to AUD 1,500 fortnightly.
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Scenario C: Employee is no longer eligible to receive JobKeeper payments.
Step 1: go to -> Report-> Single Touch Payroll Reporting -> Jobkeeper Payments.
Step 2: select eligible emplyee, then choose the pay period starts on Final Jobkeeper fortnight.
Step 3: once all has been selected, click "Send STP to ATO"
Step 4: go back to Reports tab, to check sending progress.
Step 5: check Log for reported info.
Step 6: Send termination STP to ATO
Eligible business participants
The process for nominating eligible business participants (for example, a partner in a partnership, an adult beneficiary of a trust, or a shareholder or director of a company) or sole traders is different to the process for employees. Refer to the ATO website for information on this process.
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