Employers given November extension for JobKeeper declarations after ATO systems went offline

Employers will now have until the end of November to submit their monthly declaration for October JobKeeper payments, after the tax office’s online services were unavailable last weekend. 

Businesses are required to make declarations to the Australian Taxation Office between the 1st and 14th of each month in order to claim JobKeeper payments for the previous month. 

The second phase of the JobKeeper wage subsidy program came into effect on September 28, with JobKeeper rates reducing in October, and eligible employees moving to a two-tiered system based on their hours worked. 

Declarations for October JobKeeper payments were due between November 1 and 14, however, the ATO scheduled maintenance for its online services for tax agents over the weekend of November 14 and 15, which meant the services were unavailable. 

The ATO has now extended the deadline for October JobKeeper declarations, confirming to SmartCompany that it will continue to accept declarations throughout November. 

“As our systems were unavailable last weekend due to planned system maintenance, we will continue to process the monthly declaration to reimburse employers for October payments past 14 November 2020,” said an ATO spokesperson. 

“As always, the sooner declarations are lodged, the sooner payments are processed.”

Monthly declarations for November JobKeeper payments will be due between December 1 and 14. 

SmartCompany asked the ATO if any scheduled maintenance will affect those declarations, but did not receive a response. 

Employers are still able to enrol in the JobKeeper program, and those wanting to claim JobKeeper payments for November must enrol by November 30. 

According to Accountants Daily, some employers and payroll software providers have also recently experienced issues with long-form JobKeeper tiers not being reflected on the ATO portal. 

The issue — involving JobKeeper codes such as “JOBKEEPER-TIER1” and “JOBKEEPER-TIER2” — has now been resolved.

General information about JobKeeper reporting dates is available on the ATO website here.