Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2020L01173:body:0:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2020L01173
Segment Type: other
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Character Range: 0–3094

Legislative Instrument

Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Alternative Reference Period Determination 2020

I, Christopher David Jordan, Commissioner of Taxation, make this determination under subsection 20(4) of the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Act 2020 and subsection 4A(2) of the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Rules 2020.

Christopher David Jordan AO
Commissioner of Taxation
Dated: 16 September 2020

1.                  Name of instrument
This determination is the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Alternative Reference Period Determination 2020.

2.                  Commencement
This instrument commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.

3.                  Application
This instrument applies to provide an alternative reference period for a specified class of individuals in determining whether the higher or lower rate of a JobKeeper payment amount applies to an individual who is an eligible employee, an eligible business participant, or an eligible religious practitioner, if the Commissioner considers that the period set out in the table in subsection 4A(1) of the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Rules 2020 (the Rules) may not be a suitable reference period for the purpose of applying subsection 9A(1) and 12AA(1) or section 12BA of the Rules to individuals in the specified class.

4.                  Determination
This determination applies to individuals in the classes of individuals described in this determination, covered by sections 6 to 8 of this instrument.

5.                  Definitions

Subject to any addition or change contained in another paragraph, an expression used in this instrument that is defined in section 4 of the Rules (including, for the avoidance of doubt, subsection 4(2) of the Rules) has the same meaning in this instrument as it has in the Rules.

For the purposes of this instrument, reference time means 1 March 2020 or 1 July 2020, as applicable.

Alternative reference periods

6.                  Eligible employees

    (1)   For the purposes of applying subsection 9A(1) of the Rules, an alternative reference period under this section applies to an individual who is an eligible employee of an entity if:

         (a)   the employee's total hours of work, paid leave and paid absence on public holidays in the individual's employment with that entity in the reference period:

              (i)      was less than 80 hours; and

              (ii)    when compared to earlier 28-day periods ending at the end of a pay cycle for the employee, was not representative of the employee's total number of those hours in a typical such 28-day period;

         (b)   the employee was not employed by that entity during all or part of the reference period;

         (c)   the start of the employee's employment with that entity was on or before the reference time but their first pay cycle ended on or after the reference time;