Jobkeeper Overpayments and the ATO

The government is now looking to the ATO to consider whether any JobKeeper payments have in fact been overpaid and whether these amounts may be clawed back from their recipients. The ATO has recently released a Jobkeeper overpayment article with some guidance about how they will treat overpayments:
  • The ATO can decide that the overpayment does not have to be repaid (typically if you or your client, for example, have made an honest mistake).
  • The ATO can decide that the overpayment must be repaid by your client.
  • The ATO can decide that another entity that directly or indirectly benefited from the overpayment is also liable to repay the overpayment. If so, the ATO may pursue the entire repayment from the client, the other entity, or both until the overpayment is repaid in full.
There are some exceptions for example where an employee relied in good faith on an employee’s statement made in their nomination notice; payments were fully passed-on to the benefit of the employee; the mistake was made early in the JobKeeper process when there was less public guidance on the process itself. In contrast, the ATO considers the following not to be considered honest:
  • Fraud or an intentional disregard on the law or recklessness in the application;
  • The entity nominated employees or business participants that should have known it would not satisfy the eligibility requirements.
  • The employer has typically not met the wage conditions.
The entity has been contacted by the ATO about its claim potentially being ineligible and has not taken reasonable steps to check their eligibility before making a claim in the future.
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