As the pressure mounts on the Federal Government for greater transparency around its JobKeeper program, the Federal Parliament has passed legislation requiring all listed entities to publicly announce to ASX certain details of JobKeeper payments they (or any of their subsidiaries) received in FY21, including whether or not they have voluntarily paid any of it back. ASIC will also publish a consolidated report on its website.

Who is required to give this notice?

A listed entity must give a notice to its market operator (ASX or NSX) if it, or one of its subsidiaries, received a JobKeeper payment in a financial year, starting with FY21.

What details have to be disclosed about JobKeeper payments?

The notice must set out the following information for each financial year:

• the listed entity’s name and ABN;
• the number of individuals for whom the listed group received a JobKeeper payment in the financial year;
• the total dollar amount of all JobKeeper payments the listed group received in the financial year;
• whether or not the listed group has made any voluntary repayments (whether or not in the financial year) of any JobKeeper payments received in the financial year; and
• the total dollar amount of those voluntary repayments (if any).

At this stage, no particular form of notice has been prescribed. ASX announced on 30 September that it will shortly publish a template ‘JobKeeper s323DB notice’ on the ASX Online for Companies webpage, which listed entities should use.

When does the notice have to be given?

The notice must be given either:

• if the listed entity has already lodged its full year financial report for the relevant financial year on or before 14 September 2021 (when new section 323DB came into effect) - within 60 days after that day; or
• otherwise, within 60 days after the listed entity lodges its full year financial report for the relevant financial year.

This ASX filing must be given for each financial year in which a JobKeeper payment was received.

If the listed entity becomes aware that a notice it has given is out of date or is otherwise not correct, it must lodge a corrected notice with ASX (or NSX as applicable) within 60 days of becoming aware of the error.

Failure to lodge a notice (or a corrected notice) is a strict liability offence, attracting a penalty of 60 penalty units (i.e. $13,320).