The Federal Government has announced a new $130bn JobKeeper payment plan as part of its third stimulus package. This has been created to subsidise wages to ensure businesses can keep employees during the downturn due to COVID-19.
It will come as a tremendous relief for many small and medium business wondering how they are going to find their way through the current economic climate!
Businesses will receive a wage subsidy of $1,500 per eligible employee, per fortnight to keep those employees in work. This will be delivered through the ATO and based on exisitng payroll information.
Employers will pay their eligible employees and be reimbursed by the Government and the program is expected to run for 6 months, payments will stop if the employee is no longer employed.
Payments from the Government to eligible businesses will start from the first week of May and will be backdated to 30 March, so employers may have to continue to make payments to employees prior to being reimbursed by the Government.
Sole traders are also eligible to apply for the JobKeeper payment for themselves if they can demonstrate that their turnover has fallen by more than 30%.
Please note: the legislation has not been released on this yet and we are waiting for further details to be announced.
The two fact sheets below contain for more information.
Businesses can register their interest with the ATO here:
https://www.ato.gov.au/Job-keeper-payment/
