As a business owner, have you worried if there may be a potential taxation issue that could apply to a redundancy payment received if you wanted to re-employ a great employee into a new role in your company?
I have done some research and can reassure you that this is not an issue.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) defines a ‘genuine redundancy’ as “when the job the worker was doing is no longer required and the employment is terminated for this reason. This means the employee will not be replaced by another person and there is no agreement with the employer to be re-hired at that time.”
There is a very clear ruling which can be found via this link:
http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?docid=TXR/TR20092/NAT/ATO/00001
If, when the role was made redundant and the employee had no expectation to be rehired at the time of redundancy, the employer is able to rehire the employee into a new position which, for one reason or another has become vacant after the redundancy date.
On a side note too, it is important if you do re-employ someone that you check your Award to ensure you are meeting any obligations you may have to reinstate unclaimed leave balances (such as Personal/Carers leave) that applied at the time of termination.
Classic Recruitment & Human Resources is happy to help with further advice.