We have had a number of FAQ queries in regards to how to treat the JobKeeper payments for employee payments through the ClockOn STP system
Please note that this document relates to frequently asked questions around the JobKeeper payment system, If you need assistance with how to set this up in your system, please refer to the JobKeeper Payments knowledge base article.
Included in this document is information regarding the following items:
- How do I manage Catch-up/backpays for JobKeeper?
- What do I set as my start period?
- What should I put as the JobKeeper end period?
- Can I use a Monthly payroll cycle with JobKeeper payments?
- Can I use a Quarterly payroll cycle with JobKeeper payments?
- What payments to the employees make up the fortnightly amount?
- How do I treat Salary Sacrifice payments with JobKeeper?
- When do I need to have this done to get the first round of payments?
- How to treat employees on Workers Compensation and Parental leave?
- I've entered the wrong start or finish date and submitted it through STP how do I fix this?
We will endeavor to update this list as we receive additional information.
1 - How do I manage Catch-up/backpays for JobKeeper?
For the April payments to catch-up on the missed amounts, the ATO has put in provisions to allow you to simply add the amount to the JOBKEEPER-TOPUP allowance (as detailed JobKeeper Payments knowledge base article) for the amounts that the employee was shortchanged for.
For example; if the employee earned a total gross of 1000 in the previous fortnight, and 1500 this fortnight (inclusive of this period's JobKeeper), the current payroll will be increased by the remaining 500 bringing their total to $2000 for this period.
Please note that by increasing the total the employee may pass into a new tax bracket, as such you will need to either speak with your employees to advise on this or manually work out the difference in tax for the period and do a tax adjustment to reduce the tax (remember to set the Process As dropdown to Tax Allowance/Rebate if you choose to do this)
2 - What do I set as my start period?
The ATO has described the start period is the first fortnight in which you will receive the JobKeeper payments for your employees, note that this is not necessarily the payment date for the payroll.
You should be able to determine this from the information that you provided to the ATO when you signed up for this payment.
3 - What should I put as the JobKeeper end period?
This is used to notify the ATO that as of that period the employee is no longer entitled to the JobKeeper payments.
The end date needs to be set to the first fortnightly period to which the payment no longer applies.
For example, if an employee ceases working (or is no longer eligible for the program) on 04/06, then Fortnight 06 (08/06/2020 - 21/06/2020) indicates the 6th of 13 JobKeeper fortnights was the first fortnight for which the subsidy will not be reimbursed to the employer.
Please note the following
- If the employee is entitled to all periods then there is no need to put anything into this field.
- For employees that are finishing up with JobKeeper at the end of the initial 13 periods, then the end date is not required.
If you have incorrectly set the End Date for an employee the process for correcting this is as follows
- Update the Jobkeeper Start Date to be the same period as the incorrectly set End Date.
- Process an STP Employee Update for the staff.
- Change the JobKeeper Start Date back to the original value.
- Change the JobKeeper End Date to none.
- Process and additional STP Employee Update for the staff.
By processing the start date and end date as the same value the JobKeeper system will register this as an invalid entry and remove it from there system.
4 - Can I use a Monthly payroll cycle with JobKeeper payments?
Yes, you can, so long as you report that the employee receives at least the $1500 multiplied by the number of completed fortnights within the period.
5 - Can I use a Quarterly payroll cycle with JobKeeper payments?
You can, however, the amounts to the employees still need to be reported and paid on a monthly basis, you will need to contact the ATO in regards to their alternative submission methods as STP requires that the payroll be completed prior to submission.
6 - What payments to the employees make up the fortnightly amount?
The ATO has advised that the following items are to be included when working out the Taxable Gross Payment amount for the JobKeeper top-up amount
- Gross salary and wages
- Paid and unpaid absences, including any stand-down periods
- Allowances
- Overtime, shift, and penalties
- Bonuses and commissions
- Approved salary sacrifice arrangements (consider the amount prior to the deduction of the sacrificed amount)
- Separately itemized allowances INCLUDING those that are less than the ATO reasonable amount and/or not reported
- Cents per kilometer (car allowance)
- Laundry allowances
- Award transport payments that are deductible
- Overtime meal allowances
- Domestic travel and all overseas accommodation allowances
- Other allowances
- Lump sum A, B and E payments (only)
- Employment Termination Payments - Taxable components
The following are not included in the calculation
- Government Paid Parental Leave (Centrelink)
- Workers Compensation absences (not able to work)
- Reimbursements - Including of any "allowance", as these are a precise amount that reimburses an expense, verifiable by receipts, which was (or will be) incurred by the payee and should not be reported through STP, regardless of JobKeeper payments
- Director Fees
- Lump Sum D payments (exempt from PAYGW)
- Exempt foreign income (exempt from PAYGW)
- Employment Termination Payments - tax-free components and taxable components (exempt from PAYGW)
For clarification on any of these points please contact the ATO for more information.
7 - How do I treat Salary Sacrifice payments with JobKeeper?
In the case of salary sacrifice deduction payments the gross amount is considered prior the salary sacrificed amount being deducted
For example, if the employee is getting the full $1500 for the period and salary sacrificing $500 of this, they will have a before-tax amount of $1000.
8 - When do I need to have this done to get the first round of payments?
The ATO has advised that the employees need to have been paid their wages prior o the 30th April 2020, as part of this the employer also needs to have reported the JobKeeper start dates through to the ATO,
If you have yet to report the initial reporting period but have already completed your final payroll for the month, you can still do this by setting the JobKeeper start date in the employee profiles and then using the STP Employee Update process to report it outside of payroll to the ATO.
Update 27/04/2020
The ATO has extended the time allowed for the business registration from the 30th of April 2020 to the 31st of May 2020.
Please note that with this change you still have to need to have paid your employees the amounts the Jobkeeper allowance for April to be able to claim the rebate for this period.
Please see the following article from the ATO for more information
https://www.ato.gov.au/general/JobKeeper-Payment/?=Redirected_URL
Update 28/05/2020
We have had the following advice from the ATO in regards to the first round of payments
"Good Afternoon,
The Commissioner of Taxation has made an administrative decision to provide employers with additional time to pay employees their JobKeeper Payment for the transitional month of April.
We recognise the tight timeframes and continued refinement of details related to the JobKeeper measure. This change will assist employers and their advisors to meet the deadline to receive reimbursement for payments made to employees during April.
Employers will now have up until 8 May 2020 to pay their eligible employees $1500 for each fortnight in April. If the employer has not paid their staff by this date they will not be able to claim JobKeeper for the first two fortnights in April.
For an employer to be reimbursed as early as possible in May they will still need to complete relevant steps by 30 April.
We will publish an update to the JobKeeper Payment fact sheet shortly to represent this change to the payment date.
Thank you for your continued assistance in providing our mutual clients the support they need during this period of rapid change. Remember to continue to check the ATO and Treasury websites for updated information relating to JobKeeper Payment or other stimulus measures."
9 - How to treat employees on Workers Compensation and Parental leave?
Employees on these payments are not eligible for the JobKeeper payments while they are on these specific leave types.
If you have an employee that has been eligible for the payments up until this point you will need to set the JobKeeper end date to indicate the change in payment status to the ATO.
If\when the employee circumstances change again and they become eligible again, simply set the JobKeeper start date to the new commencement date and set the JobKeeper end date to none in their employee profile.
10 - I've entered the wrong start or finish date and submitted it through STP how do I fix this?
The ATO has made concessions for errors in this regard and has advised that if an employee the same JobKeeper Start and End dates recorded on submission, that record will be removed in their system.
For the exact steps for this please see below
- Update the Jobkeeper Start Date to be the same period as the incorrectly set End Date.
- Process an STP Employee Update for the staff.
- Change the JobKeeper Start Date back to the original value.
- Change the JobKeeper End Date to none.
- Process and additional STP Employee Update for the staff.
The employee can then be set with the corrected dates and re-submitted using the STP Employee Update process.