How accountants can provide proactive advice about JobMaker

Are you making the most of the opportunity to help your clients leverage the JobMaker Hiring Credit?

As you may have heard, JobMaker is the government’s new wage subsidy scheme which incentivises businesses to employ additional jobseekers aged 16-35 years.

Registrations opened on 7 December, and eligible businesses can make their first quarterly claim on 1 February 2021.

Given that businesses can register for JobMaker through their registered tax or BAS agent, this is a great opportunity to offer proactive advice to your clients. They will likely look to you for help in understanding how it works and in managing its requirements.

As your clients’ trusted advisor, and given your visibility of their data, you are in the position to know which of your clients can benefit from JobMaker, and to therefore start conversations with them about leveraging the scheme.

Helping your clients make sense of JobMaker and its eligibility requirements  

Your clients will probably have plenty of questions about the nature of JobMaker, if their business is eligible, and which employees they can claim the subsidy for.

When discussing this with your clients, you might find our previous article helpful, wherein we outline how JobMaker works, as well as the eligibility requirements for businesses and employees.

Registering your clients for JobMaker

To register for JobMaker on your client’s behalf, you will need their contact details (if you don’t already have them). You will also need their:

• Baseline headcount – that is, their total number of employees on 30 September 2020
• Baseline payroll amount – for the 3-month period up to and including 6 October 2020

Making JobMaker claims for your clients

Once your client’s business is registered, they can claim JobMaker payments for up to 12 months from an eligible employee’s start date.

To do so, you will need documents and information that confirm they are operating a business in Australia, or are a:

• Not-for-profit organisation operating in Australia
• Deductible gift recipient (DGR) endorsed, either as a public fund or for a public fund they operated under the Overseas Aid Gift Deductibility Scheme (DGR item 9.1.1) or for developed country relief (DGR item 9.1.2).

Payroll information you will need includes:

• Payroll expenses their business incurred during the relevant JobMaker period
• The number of employees their business employed on the last day of the JobMaker period

You will also need the following information about any eligible additional employees not already reported through Single Touch Payroll, including:

• Their full name
• Tax file number
• Date of birth
• Start date (if during the relevant JobMaker period)
• Cessation date (if during the relevant JobMaker period)