JobKeeper Payment Enrolment Extension & Latest Announcements

The ATO has now extended the time given to enrol for the initial JobKeeper periods, from the original date of 30 April 2020, until 31 May 2020 .

If eligible businesses enrol by 31 May 2020, they will still be able to claim for the four fortnights in April and May, provided the business meets all of the eligibility requirements for each of those fortnights. This includes having paid eligible 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 that eligible businesses will now have until 8 May 2020 to pay the minimum payment of $3,000 gross wages.

However, eligible businesses can enrol and claim for JobKeeper earlier if they choose.

Latest Announcements and More to Come

The Government has identified a number of special circumstances where the JobKeeper Payment rules currently may not provide definitive guidance, and they announced that further guidance will be released on the following topics (hopefully shortly), including:

Service entity eligibility testing to be expanded: A further "alternate decline in turnover test" will be released to assess whether special purpose service entities are eligible, as they currently may not meet the "basic decline in turnover test". These service entities generally provide employee labour to other members of a corporate group. This further test has not yet been drafted; however the initial Treasurer's announcement refers to assessment of the "combined GST turnovers of the related entities using the services of the employer entity".
Charities and the treatment of government revenue : This further guidance is expected to allow charities (other than schools and universities) to elect to either include or exclude government revenue from the JobKeeper turnover test.
Religious practitioners: Proposed changes may now deem religious practitioners (with the exception of those that are students only) to be "eligible employees" of the religious organisations to which they are affiliated.
'One in, all in' principle : This concept has been reaffirmed and will likely be included in the proposed clarifications. Simply, employers are not allowed to pick and choose who they nominate as eligible employees for JobKeeper purposes.
Full time students aged 16 and 17 years old: The JobKeeper eligible employee criteria should now exclude full time students aged 16 or 17 (as at 1 March 2020) who are not financially independent. The rule should be applied prospectively to ensure businesses are not out of pocket for wages already paid to such employees in the first two JobKeeper fortnights.
Universities: I twill be clarified that the core Federal Government financial assistance provided to universities should be included in the JobKeeper turnover tests.

Reminder of Previously Released JobKeeper Topics

Since 31 March 2020, we have released numerous Tax Alerts in relation to the regulations and guidance of the JobKeeper Payment scheme, and they can be found shortcuts below:

Please do not hesitate to contact your Lowe Lippmann Relationship Partner if you wish to discuss any of these matters further.

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Practice Update – August 2025

August 6, 2025

Paid parental leave changes have now commenced As from 1 July 2025, the amount of Paid Parental Leave available to families increased to 24 weeks, and the amount of Paid Parental Leave that parents can take off at the same time has also increased from two weeks to four weeks. Superannuation will now also be paid on Government Paid Parental Leave from 1 July 2025, at the new super guarantee rate of 12%, paid as a contribution to their nominated superannuation fund. Parents will also benefit from an increase in the weekly payment rate of Paid Parental Leave, increasing from $915.80 to $948.10 (in line with the increase to the National Minimum wage). This means a total increase of $775.20 over the 24-week entitlement.

Audit Lowe Down – Contracts often include price variations relating to bonuses / penalties / rebates – why do we need to consider these early?

July 28, 2025

Contracts often include price variations relating to bonuses / penalties / rebates – why do we need to consider these early? Many revenue streams are covered by AASB 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The core principle of this standard is ‘that an entity shall recognise revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services.’ [emphasis added]. To determine what we expect to receive, all elements of the contract that are not fixed need to be reviewed. We need to review contracts for: Volume discounts Rebates Refunds Performance bonuses Penalties Price concessions Once we have identified variable consideration then we need to estimate the amount expected to be received using either: the expected amount using a probability weighted average of the likely outcomes or the most likely outcome. The method chosen is the one deemed to be the best estimate of the expected consideration, and the amounts may be updated at each reporting date. Once the consideration has been determined, the entity recognises only the revenue that is highly probable will occur – this is known as the constraint on revenue recognition. Practically, the requirements discussed above for variable consideration are relevant only where an entity satisfies the requirements for revenue recognition over time and contract crosses a reporting date. As the estimate of the variable consideration changes, there may need to be a catch-up adjustment on previous revenue recognition for that contract.

Tax Alert - New Tax Agent Obligations from 1 July 2025

July 21, 2025

New Tax Agent Obligations from 1 July 2025 From 1 July 2025, “small” firms of tax practitioners (with 100 or less employees) must ensure they are complying with the eight new Code of Professional Conduct obligations from the Tax Practitioners Board ( TPB ). These new Code obligations were introduced by the Government under the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024. The new Code obligations have already commenced for large tax practitioners (with over 100 employees) from 1 January 2025. As tax agents, Lowe Lippmann Chartered Accountants are committed to upholding our professional and regulatory obligations, including with the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 which includes the Code of Professional Conduct as regulated by the TPB.