Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Source: AAP/Lukas Coch.
For a lucky few, the free money fountain is still trickling. But shhh! Don’t tell anyone.
Australia’s economy has healed at record pace. Despite occasional lockdown outbreaks, business conditions are at a record high, as measured by the National Australia Bank in May.
“By state and industry, the strength in activity is evident everywhere,” it said in a note to clients.
But small businesses are still getting fat handouts in the long tail of Australia’s most insanely generous business program.
Crikey wrote about this last week: a $35 billion program that somehow sailed under the radar. The government gave a sum of money to small businesses equal to double the cost of all our doomed Joint Strike Fighters, and the media ignored it, focusing on JobKeeper instead.
May 3, 2021
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is reviewing thousands of rejected JobKeeper applications made by small businesses, after announcing it will not appeal a full Federal Court decision that ruled in favour of a sole trader.
In an impact statement published Friday, the ATO said it “accepts the Court’s views” that the ATO Commissioner should have exercised discretion when refusing a sole trader’s application for JobKeeper on the basis that they did not have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) on March 12.
“The Commissioner acknowledges that there are entities who might be impacted by the decision and is committed to addressing any such cases as a matter of priority,” the ATO said.
ATO launches appeal against JobKeeper decision accountantsdaily.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from accountantsdaily.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
January 7, 2021
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) says it is considering appealing a ruling by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) that gave access to JobKeeper payments to a business owner who was previously deemed ineligible for the wage subsidies.
One of the eligibility requirements for the JobKeeper program is for business operators to have an Australian Business Number (ABN) as of March 12, 2020, and in this case, the ATO initially said sole trader Jeremy Apted was not eligible for the wage subsidies as his ABN was not active at this time.
However, in a decision handed down in December, the AAT found Apted did in fact meet the JobKeeper eligibility criteria of having an ABN on March 12, 2020, because the Australian Business Registry had reactivated an old ABN and backdated the reactivation to before March 12.