With over 850,000 businesses having expressed interest to register for the government’s $130 billion JobKeeper scheme, the ATO has now officially opened enrolments through Online services for agents and the business portal.
To help facilitate the enrolments, the ATO has now published three separate guides aimed at sole traders, employers who report through Single Touch Payroll (STP) and employers who do not report through STP.
Businesses that use STP-enabled payroll software that has been updated with JobKeeper functionality will now be able to identify eligible employees and update the ATO directly through their software.
Those who use STP-enabled payroll software that does not offer JobKeeper functionality will only be able to select prefilled employee details or manually enter employee details from 4 May.
Businesses that do not report through STP will be able to identify eligible employees by manually entering their tax file number and date of birth from 4 May.
While employers will only be required to identify employees once, each business will be required to make a monthly declaration, which will include a review of eligible employees.
The monthly declaration will also require information as to the current and projected GST turnover. The ATO notes, however, that this is not an eligibility retest, but rather an indication of how a business is progressing under the scheme.
You can access the ATO’s JobKeeper guides here:
Jotham Lian
Jotham Lian is the editor of Accountants Daily, the leading source of breaking news, analysis and insight for Australian accounting professionals.
Before joining the team in 2017, Jotham wrote for a range of national mastheads including the Sydney Morning Herald, and Channel NewsAsia.
You can email Jotham at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
