The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the country and around the globe, leaving nearly no one completely untouched. But among the tragic stories are also stories of incredible resourcefulness.

Here are some recent updates and helpful resources we’ve found lately to help you through this.

JobKeeper now open

Enrolment is now open for the government’s JobKeeper payment scheme. The payment is open to eligible employers, eligible sole traders and some other entities, allowing them to keep paying eligible employee’s salary or wages of $1500 per fortnight (before tax).

Employers need to pay all eligible employees a minimum of $1500 (before tax) per fortnight in order to claim the JobKeeper payment. For many business owners, those funds are hard to come by right now. You can get in touch with us to discuss your cashflow. However, it is very important eligible employers make the payment of $1500 (before tax) per fortnight per eligible employee so they can be reimbursed by the ATO.

We can help you with your JobKeeper application

While you can complete the JobKeeper application yourself through the myGov portal, we highly recommend you use an experienced advisor. Registered tax or BAS agents can enroll your eligible entity on your behalf.

Now, more than ever, you need an advisor on your side. We can step you through this process so you have one less thing to worry about. Plus, you can rest assured that your application will be correct, as well as your GST and fall in turnover tests. Should you wish us to enroll your entity for JobKeeper, please send us an email and confirm that your business turnover has dropped or likely to be dropped by at least 30% as a result of Covid-19 and want us to do enroll your business for JobKeeper program.  We will then ask you to provide us with necessary documentation in order to assess your eligibility as well as your employees’ eligibility. Please note that once the business is enrolled for month of April, then every month and for the next 5 months, we need to declare business and employees’ eligibility.

When to expect JobKeeper payments

The first payments to eligible employers will commence in the first week of May 2020. JobKeeper payments can be made for the period beginning 30 March 2020.

In short, there is still some time before you will start seeing these payments flow, so get in touch with us to discuss what you should do in the meantime.

Single Touch Payroll

If you’re not already, now is the time to get set up and running with Single Touch Payroll (STP). This will make your JobKeeper process easier. We can help you find the software that suits you best and set this up for you.

A reminder

The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) together with the ATO announced that they will not look favourably on businesses who seek to become eligible for grants, loans, benefits or other assistance that they would not ordinarily be entitled to. Their statement says “any sudden changes to the characterisation of payments may cause us to investigate.”

It’s best to let things happen as they normally would, and seek only the benefits you’re entitled to.

Update on Cash flow Boost (PAYG Cashback)

The government is offering temporary cash flow support for small and medium businesses (as well as not-for-profits) that employ staff and have been impacted by the COVID-19 economic downturn.

Eligible businesses will receive between $20,000 to $100,000 in cash flow boost amounts by lodging their activity statements up to the month or quarter of September 2020.

The cash flow boosts will be delivered as credits in the activity statements system. The official start date of payments is 28 April 2020, but the ATO has started testing now and some businesses have seen these credits flow already.

What to do: You will need to get your 31 March 2020 BAS lodged as soon as possible in order to access this.

For most businesses, this will be automatically credited to their account when the activity statement is lodged.

We’re here to help

It’s certainly been a tough few weeks but we’re here to help. Thank you for your continued patience as we wade through government announcement and package requirements. We get new information on daily basis from the ATO and our professional bodies and need time to read  and understand the materials before we can advise our clients and start completing applications for those who wants us to assist them. So, we appreciate your patience. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to call us. We’re here to help. We’re in this together.

Have a great weekend.