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In case you missed it, Treasury have announced the following changes.....good luck!  https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/josh-frydenberg-2018/media-releases/jobkeeper-update

Up to you to read fully and action accordingly but the 2 major ones that may impact what you have done already are below.....if you have any questions on this please contact ATO or Treasury. 

‘One in, all in’ principle:  Once an employer decides to participate in the JobKeeper scheme and their eligible employees have agreed to be nominated by the employer, the employer must ensure that all of these eligible employees are covered by their participation in the scheme. This includes all eligible employees who are undertaking work for the employer or have been stood down. The employer cannot select which eligible employees will participate in the scheme.  As noted in the explanatory statement to the existing rules, this ‘one in, all in’ principle is already a key feature of the scheme and will be made clearer in the rules.

Full time students aged 16 and 17 years old:  As noted in the explanatory statement to the existing rules, the benefit of the JobKeeper payment to workers over the age of 16 is justified for those who are financially independent and who require the security provided by participation in the JobKeeper scheme and the maintenance of the working relationship that it affords.  The rules will provide that full time students who are 17 years old and younger, and who are not financially independent, are not eligible for the JobKeeper Payment.  This clarification will apply prospectively, which would mean an eligible employer that has already met the wage condition of paying such an employee $1,500 for a fortnight could be entitled to a JobKeeper Payment in arrears for that fortnight.

The ATO's reporting requirements for this initiative can be reviewed in the PDF STP and JobKeeper DSP factsheet.pdf  As an employer it is your responsibility to understand and comply with legislation. It is very important you fully understand this measure and your responsibilities. Failure to register with ATO and apply for the subsidy or report correctly to ATO may result in delays or prevent you from being reimbursed. From Monday 4 May, eligible employers may apply for the JobKeeper payment on the ATO Business Portal or Online services for agents. 

We still intend trying to automate some of this but to do that properly we need time to design, develop, test and release. The ATO have complicated this matter significantly with the STP reporting requirements that were released late Wednesday.  The update we had planned is insufficient to do this at this time.

In addition to the PDF above the key links we think you must minimally understand are below. 

https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/Fact_sheet_Info_for_Employers_2.pdf

https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/JobKeeper_frequently_asked_questions_2.pdf

https://www.ato.gov.au/general/gen/JobKeeper-payment/

So at this time you should take your own legal guidance if you feel you need to pay your employees the top up amount.  There is a possibility you will need to manually adjust anything you have done already or do prior to our automation if it does not meet the ATO requirements in the STP factsheet.

The ATO says :

"For the transition into the JobKeeper payment, the employer can retrospectively apply this payment for paydays on or after 30 March by the end of April."

Our intention is to automate the following in our update:

• Automated creation of the relevant payroll sub types to be used in the STP reporting. 
  • AU Stand Down Leave
  • AU JobKeeper Payment with Super
  • AU JobKeeper Payment no Super
  • JOBKEEPER-START-FNxx
  • JOBKEEPER-FINISH-FNxx
• Automated top up during payroll processing of taxable income to $1,500 Per fortnight equivalent for employees who are below the threshold based on the Payment type you select for each employee. (Essentially superable or not) It will be up to the employer if they want to pay superannuation on any additional wage paid because of the JobKeeper Payment.
• Automated summary reporting via STP to use the correct description for either of the Jobkeeper Payment types regardless which one you choose to use.  (JOBKEEPER-TOPUP)
• Automated creation of the STP reporting lines for JOBKEEPER-START-FNxx
• Automatically include any employees who are eligible in the pay run initiate screen even if they don't have timesheets to process. Eg. Casuals who are set as "Pay from NetSuite time" wouldn't normally show. 

After the update you will need to:

• Run a mass update on your eligible employees to set the required JobKeeper payment type to be used for that employee.  (Essentially superable or not)
• Ensure any employees are on Stand down leave requests if appropriate. Stand Down Leave Setup
• Process payroll for all eligible employees. 
• Manually adjust termination pays to top-up as required. (There is no guidance on applying this to termination payouts)
• Manually adjust anyone with a Salary Sacrifice whose taxable income is impacted. (There is no guidance on applying this to Sal Sacrifice at this time)
• Manually add a Payslip detail line (JOBKEEPER-FINISH-FNxx) for any eligible employees who terminate or are no longer eligible within the 13 fortnights. 

So, how do you apply those requirements currently? Well they are news to all of us and we are still digesting so if possible we would suggest you wait for us to update our Knowledge base further or wait for our automation update to be released towards the end of this week....(We hope)

As I'm sure you can appreciate this is out of our control and we are doing our best to keep up with this as much as possible. Please be patient with our support staff, we are doing our best but are unable to respond fully to all queries, so you will likely be directed to our Knowledge base links when available. 

For those who need to process this today, Infinet Cloud Payroll update bundle now contains automated creation of the AU Stand Down Leave sub type and sub types for JobKeeper payments (with and without Super). The update will take about 10 minutes and can be pushed at any time. Please email support@infinetcloud.com to request update 20.1.02-JK . Further updates to follow as the legislation has now passed although no additional guidance from ATO or Treasury or FWA as yet. 

Under the JobKeeper Payment, businesses impacted by the coronavirus will be able to access a subsidy from the Government to continue paying their employees. Affected employers will be able to claim a fortnightly payment of $1,500 per eligible employee from 30 March 2020, for a maximum period of 6 months.