You will receive either an income statement via myGov or a payment summary from your employer depending on how your employer reports your income, tax and super information.

How you receive your income statement

Your employer will provide you with your end of year statement as either:

• an income statement – if your employer reports to the ATO through Single Touch Payroll (STP)
• a payment summary – if your employer is not yet reporting through STP

Your employer should let you know if you will receive an income statement or payment summary. You should talk to them if you are unsure.

Employers are no longer required to give you a payment summary if they report through STP. This information will be made available to you through ATO online services via myGov and finalised by 31 July

If you have more than one employer

If you have more than one employer, you may receive both an income statement and a payment summary. You will need to check that income from your payment summaries is included in your return. This information may be pre-filled for you or you might need to enter it manually.

Access your income statement via your tax agent

Your tax agent will be able to access your information through their software or through Online services for agents.

Your agent will need to wait until the income statement has been marked as ‘Tax ready’ to prepare and lodge your return. Most employers have until 14 July to finalise their data. However, some employers have until 31 July to do this.

We will send a notification to your myGov inbox when all of your income statements are ‘Tax ready’.

Access your income statement through myGov

If your employer is reporting through STP, you receive an income statement.

Your PAYG payment summary will show your year-to-date salary and wages, the tax that has been withheld and the reported amounts of your employer super.

You will need to wait until your employer marks your statement it as ‘Tax ready’ before you prepare and lodge your tax return. Most employers have until 14 July to do this but will often do it earlier. Some employers have until 31 July.

It is important that you don’t use any information that is not marked ‘Tax ready’ as your employer may finalise your income statement with different amounts. If you lodge before the statement is ‘Tax ready’, you may have to amend your tax return.

We will send a notification to your myGov inbox when all of your income statements are ‘Tax ready’.

If after 31 July your PAYG payment summary is not marked as ‘Tax ready’ in ATO online services, you will need to speak to your employer to find out when they will finalise your statement.

When your income statement is not tax ready

If your statement information isn’t marked as ‘Tax ready’ by your employer, you will see a red box in ATO online services that says ‘Not tax ready’. You will need to speak to your employer to find out when they will finalise your statement.

If you choose to lodge your tax return before your income statement is finalised by your employer, you will need to review any information that has pre-filled and confirm it is correct and you wish to use it before you submit your tax return.

If you choose to use information from your income statement before it is finalised to lodge your tax return, you will need to acknowledge that:

• your employer may finalise your statement with different amounts
• you may need to amend your tax return and additional tax may be payable

Griffin & Associates

Click here for further information on how Griffin & Associates can assist in your tax matters.

Source: Australian Taxation Office

Date: 21/06/2021

The first tranche of JobKeeper ends on 27 September 2020.  Those needing further support will need to reassess their eligibility and prove an actual decline in turnover.

To receive JobKeeper from 28 September 2020, eligible employers need to assess their decline in turnover with reference to actual GST turnover for the September 2020 quarter (for JobKeeper payments between 28 September to 3 January 2021), and again for the December 2020 quarter (for payments between 4 January 2021 to 28 March 2021).

From 28 September 2020, the JobKeeper payment rate will reduce and split into a higher and lower rate based on the number of hours the employee worked in a specific 28 day period prior to 1 March 2020 or 1 July 2020.

To access JobKeeper payments from 28 September 2020, there are three questions that need to be assessed:

• Is my business eligible?
• Am I and/or my employees eligible?
• What JobKeeper rate applies?

Griffin & Associates has summarised the key details for employers on JobKeeper 2.0.

Click here for more details.

Date: 29/09/2020

The government has introduced changes to the JobKeeper Payment.  The new rules have now been registered and are effective from 3 August 2020.

The changes to these rules include:

– Employees eligibility for JobKeeper can now be assessed from 1 July 2020, rather than 1 March 2020.

– Employees can now be nominated by new employers if their employment has changed since the JobKeeper Payment began.  However, they can still only be nominated by one employer at any given time.

– Employers have until 31 August 2020 to meet the wage condition for new eligible employees under the 1 July eligibility test for fortnights commencing on 3^rd August and 17^th August.

Businesses can claim reimbursement for their new eligible employees between 1 and 14 September 2020, when they lodge their August monthly declaration.

A copy of the new employee nomination notice can be downloaded here.

An eligible business can still enrol at any time until the program closes.

Date – 23/08/2020

Source – Australian Taxation Office

Between April to May 2020, JobKeeper was taken up by 920,000 organisations and around 3.5 million individuals – 30% of pre-Coronavirus private sector employment.

On 21 July 2020, the Government announced an extension of the JobKeeper program to 28 March 2021 but with tighter access and reduced rates.

From 28 September 2020, employers seeking to claim JobKeeper payments will need to reassess their eligibility and prove an actual decline in turnover. If your business currently receives JobKeeper, your arrangements will generally remain unchanged until 27 September 2020.

Griffin & Associates has summarised the key details for employers on JobKeeper 2.0.

Click here for more details.

Date – 27/07/2020

Key dates for JobKeeper are approaching and it is important that eligible businesses meet these dates to receive payments from the Australian Taxation Office.

If you have not enrolled for JobKeeper

JobKeeper enrolments for the fortnights paid in April 2020 and May 2020 must be completed by 31^st May 2020.  Please note that after this date eligible businesses will be unable to make a claim for these months.

Businesses can still enrol for JobKeeper at a later time to claim JobKeeper fortnights that occur from June 2020.

If you have already enrolled for JobKeeper

We recommend that businesses check their mygov account or business portal to ensure that Steps 1, 2 and 3 have all been completed.  All three of these steps need to be completed prior to 31^st May 2020 to receive payments for April 2020 and May 2020.

Please also note that you also need to continue making a business monthly declaration:

• Re-confirm your business and employee eligibility
• Provide your business’s current and projected GST turnover
• Complete a business monthly declaration for each month between 1^st and 14^th of the following month
• The May 2020 declaration must be completed between 1^st June and 14^th June

Record requirements

It is very important that anyone enrolling for JobKeeper maintains records for 5 years to be provided to the ATO in the situation of an audit or review.  We recommend that each entity maintains these records in both a paper form and electronic form.

Please click here for a list of records that should be maintained for 5 years for any entity that enrols for JobKeeper payments.

If you have any questions regarding JobKeeper, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

Source: Australian Taxation Office

Date: 26/05/2020

From 1 May 2020, there is an obligation that within seven days of enrolling to receive JobKeeper payments an employer must give a written notice to each of their employees.

The written notice must include the following:

• Explain to employees what they need to do to be nominated by the entity for JobKeeper payments
• Provide a copy of an JobKeeper Employee Nomination Form
• State that the employee must provide the nomination form to the employer to receive JobKeeper payments
• Include information about the steps the employee can take to give the entity the nomination notice

If you require further information regarding this new requirement, please do not hesitate to contact Griffin & Associates.

Source: Australian Taxation Office

Date: 09/05/2020

Eligibility for JobKeeper payments is a self-assessment process, with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) administering the payment.  However, if a payment is made and the ATO later determine that the entity was not entitled to that payment (or was entitled to a lesser amount) the entity will be required to repay the overpaid amount.  Penalties and interest to overpaid amounts may also apply.

It is therefore very important that anyone enrolling for JobKeeper maintains records for 5 years to be provided to the ATO in the situation of an audit or review.  We recommend that each entity maintains these records in both a paper form and electronic form.

The following is a list of records that should be maintained for 5 years for any entity that enrols for JobKeeper payments.

Enrolment Turnover Records

• Whether you used a cash or an accruals basis to calculate turnover
• Reason why you adopted a cash or accruals method:
  • As per GST registration; or
  • Other method (details and justification on why a different method was used).
• What test period was used (i.e. which month or quarter)
• What comparative period was used (i.e. which month or quarter)
• Whether you used the basic test or an alternative test
• If you used an alternative test:
  • What alternative test was used
  • Reasons why the alternative test was used
  • Calculations of the comparative period turnover using the alternative test
• Profit & Loss Statement
• Which income was excluded from turnover (if any) (e.g. interest income)
• Detailed income report (e.g. general ledger) for the following:
  • Test period
  • Comparative period
• Calculation to show the percentage of reduction in turnover (e.g. greater than 30%)

Ongoing Turnover Reporting Records

• Period (i.e. which month or quarter)
• Whether you used a cash or an accruals basis to calculate turnover (as per enrolment)
• Profit & Loss Statement
• Which income was excluded from turnover (if any) (e.g. interest income)
• Detailed income report (e.g. general ledger)

Employees Records

• Completion of the nomination forms for the following:
  • Employees
  • Eligible business participant (excluding sole trader)
• Assessment of employees:
  • Which employees are eligible
  • Which employees are ineligible and reason why they are ineligible
• Ongoing employee reports:
  • Details if employee becomes eligible after JobKeeper commences
  • Details if employee become ineligible after JobKeeper commences

Source – Australian Taxation Office

Date – 01/05/2020

The ATO has updated their position on whether a business should use a cash method or an accruals method to determine their eligibility for the JobKeeper payment.

The revised ATO position is less favourable than the previous statement and is as follows:

“If you normally account for GST on an accruals basis, but seek to calculate on a cash basis (or vice versa), we may seek to understand your circumstances to ensure that the calculation achieves an appropriate reflection of your turnover.  If you aren’t registered for GST, we would expect you to use the same accounting method you use for income tax purposes”.

If you have any questions regarding the calculation of your turnover, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

Source: Australian Taxation Office

Date: 29/04/2020

The Australian Taxation Office has extended the time to enrol for the initial JobKeeper periods, from 30 April 2020 until 31 May 2020.

If you enrol by 31 May you will still be able to claim for the fortnights in April and May, provided you meet all the eligibility requirements for each of those fortnights. This includes having paid your employees by the appropriate date for each fortnight.

For the first two fortnights (30 March – 12 April, 13 April – 26 April), the ATO will accept the minimum $1,500 payment for each fortnight has been paid by you even if it has been paid late, provided it is paid by you by the end of April.

You can enrol and claim for JobKeeper earlier if you choose. For example, you can enrol by the end of April to claim JobKeeper payments for the two fortnights in April.

Source: Australian Taxation Office

Date: 26/04/2020

JobKeeper Overview

Enrolment is now open for the government’s $130 billion JobKeeper Payment scheme.

The JobKeeper payment is open to eligible employers, sole traders and other entities to enable them to pay their eligible employee’s salary or wages of at least $1,500 (before tax) per fortnight.  You can enrol for the JobKeeper payment through the ATO’s Business Portal or the ATO online services using myGov if you are a sole trader.

Eligible employers will be reimbursed a fixed amount of $1,500 per fortnight for each eligible employee.

Employers need to pay all eligible employees a minimum of $1,500 (before tax) per fortnight to claim the JobKeeper payment.  This will be paid to the employer in arrears each month by the ATO.  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.

If employers do not continue to pay their employees for each pay period, they will cease to qualify for the JobKeeper payment.

To be eligible for the JobKeeper payment, employers and their employees must meet a range of criteria, including:

• On 1 March 2020, you carried on a business in Australia.
• You employed at least one eligible employee on 1 March 2020.
• Your eligible employees are currently employed by your business for the fortnights you claim.
• Eligible employees include those who are stood down or re-hired.
• Your business has faced either a
  • 30% fall in turnover (for an aggregated turnover of $1 billion or less)
  • 50% fall in turnover (for an aggregated turnover of more than $1 billion)
  • 15% fall in turnover (for ACNC-registered charities)

Sole traders are eligible for one active business participant if they meet the other eligibility requirements.

Please click here for more detailed information regarding the JobKeeper eligibility on the ATO website

April 2020 JobKeeper payments

If you have not yet considered your eligibility or would like assistance, please contact Griffin & Associates immediately.

Registrations for JobKeeper for the month of April 2020 need to be completed before 30 April 2020.

JobKeeper documents

The following are important documents for the JobKeeper payments:

• JobKeeper snapshot
• Employee nomination notice
• Nomination notice for Eligible Business Participants (excluding sole traders)

Accessing the Business Portal

If you are not a sole trader, you will need to access the business portal for the JobKeeper payments.

Griffin & Associates has uploaded instructions on how to access the Business Portal.  Please click here for further information.

Source: Australian Taxation Office

Date: 22/04/2020