I’m hearing a lot of people (including other accountants!) say that JobKeeper isn’t available for some businesses in our region because their turnover was already low 12 months ago because of the drought.
Using the basic test, this may be right, your businesses turnover might not be 30% lower than last year because it was already low in 2019.
There is however an alternative test for businesses affected by drought and other natural disasters:
(1) An entity applies the alternative test under this section if:
(a) the entity conducted business or some of the business in a declared drought zone, or declared natural disaster zone, during the relevant comparison period, and
(b) the drought or natural disaster changed the entity’s turnover.
(2) The alternative test is the entity uses the entity’s current GST turnover for the same period in the year immediately before the declaration for the purposes of the basic test in section 8 of the Rules.
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00461
So if in 2019 your business already had reduced turnover due to the drought and in 2020 your business is affected by Covid-19, you compare the figures from an earlier year. Tamworth was drought declared in April 2018, so a business in Tamworth would use comparative figures from 2017! Glen Innes was not officially in drought until June 2018, so a business applying for JobKeeper based on April or May 2020 would use comparative turnover from 2018. However a Glen Innes business using June 2020 figures would use the comparatives from June 2017.
So in short, just because you were in drought in 2019, you may still be eligible to apply for JobKeeper.
GQ Tax 