If your employees qualified for the Federal Government’s JobKeeper support payments you were exempt from paying any payroll tax on the wage subsidy.

Please note: if any of your employees qualified for the Federal Government’s JobKeeper support payments between 4 January 2021 and 28 March 2021 you also received a waiver of the payroll tax payable on all your declared wages for the months of January to June 2021 (for the return periods of December 2020 to May 2021).

See the Employers with group Australia wages above $4 million page for more details

Were JobKeeper payments subject to payroll tax?

No, these payments were not subject to payroll tax.

The amount payable did not need to be included in the total salaries and wages declared in your monthly return.

However, your business was required to report the JobKeeper payment amounts separately in RevenueSA Online.

Were JobKeeper payments included in my taxable wages?

No they were not included. JobKeeper payments paid to an employee were classed as exempt wages.

Was the entire JobKeeper subsidy exempt from payroll tax?

The JobKeeper wage subsidy was exempt from payroll tax.

The JobKeeper payments were recorded in your return for reporting purposes only and did not form part of your taxable wages.

March 2020 to November 2020 Returns

Any payments made in addition to the JobKeeper amount were liable for payroll tax.

For example, if a business paid an employee $200 + the full JobKeeper payment each fortnight, the $200 was declared as wages and the JobKeeper payment was exempt from payroll tax.

December 2020 to May 2021 Returns

If any of your employees qualified for the Federal Government’s JobKeeper support payments between 4 January 2021 and 28 March 2021 you also received a waiver of the payroll tax payable on all your declared paid wages for the months of January to June 2021 (for the return periods of December 2020 to May 2021).

See the Employers with group Australia wages above $4 million page for more details

What if my employees’ normal earnings were less than the amount of the JobKeeper payment?

If you were eligible to receive the JobKeeper payment for that employee, the amount received via the JobKeeper initiative was exempt.

How were JobKeeper payments reflected in the monthly return?

If your normal monthly wage bill was $30,000, but you received $10,000 in JobKeeper payments, you were required to report $20,000 of regular wages in your monthly return as normal, and report the $10,000 JobKeeper payments only in the JobKeeper field – not as part of your wages.

The JobKeeper payments were recorded in your return for reporting purposes only and did not form part of your taxable wages.

The amount of the JobKeeper payment I received covered a longer period than the period of the monthly return. Did these JobKeeper payments need to be averaged out?

No. For payroll tax, JobKeeper payments were exempt wages.

For RevenueSA’s purposes this means that the JobKeeper amount you reported in the relevant field of your monthly return was not included in your payroll tax calculations

You did not need to average the JobKeeper out as the JobKeeper information was not used t for your monthly payroll tax returns.