The State Government has announced that they will open up a second round of their COVID-19 Adaption Grants Program. This program provides grants of up to $10,000 for businesses to fund a range of eligible activities.

Businesses that have enrolled for the JobKeeper Payment need to lodge their May JobKeeper Declaration with the Australian Taxation Office by the 14th June, so they can receive their payment for May. These can be lodged through the ATO business portal in the same way the April declaration was lodged. As your tax agent, we are also able to lodge these declarations on your behalf. If this declaration is not lodged, no further JobKeeper payments will be made by the ATO, even if you are on single touch payroll.

Earlier this week, the Queensland State Government announced a $10,000 grant program to assist Queensland small businesses. The total program is $100m and will help approximately 10,000 small businesses.

As explained in our previous updates, the JobKeeper enrolment is a three step process:

The JobKeeper program has opened for enrolment from today. Enrolment is the first of a three step process for eligible businesses to claim the JobKeeper Payment.

With the country now being some weeks into the COVID-19 crisis, you may feel inundated with the volume of information and guidance in relation to it.

In conjunction with the Cairns Post, we have launched a website providing videos and resources to help the Cairns business community understand what Government support is available during the COVID-19 crisis.

The ATO have released more information about the JobKeeper Payment, including how the program will be administered. To ensure all of our clients are up to date with the latest developments, we have summarised some key information below.

The JobKeeper Payment announced by the Prime Minister on Monday has been well received by employers and employees struggling through the COVID-19 crisis. We have already had many enquiries from employers about how this scheme will operate. These employers have had many enquiries from their staff. To help everyone understand the proposed scheme, we have detailed answers below to some frequently asked questions and also identified some issues for employers to consider.

As you may be aware, the Federal Government announced this week, a wage subsidy for businesses impacted by COVID-19. The subsidy, known as the JobKeeper Payment, will be a payment made by the Government to businesses who have suffered a significant downturn in income (as a result of COVID-19) to help them retain employees.