Tax Tips: COVID relief

Written by: Evan Lowenstein
As recipients of my regular email circulars, you will be all be aware now of the grants that have been on offer from the Federal, NSW and Victorian Governments.
As the situation has stabilised to some extent with State Governments approaching vaccination targets, assistance will be tapered off as the nation approaches 80% double vaccinated.
The Federal Government has announced that the $750 a week disaster payments will cease once this milestone is achieved.
The Government has also announced the extension of the SME Recovery Loan Scheme which is designed to give lenders some guarantee when lending to small and medium businesses. The government will guarantee up to 80% of the loan and will support lenders in giving eligible businesses a 24 month debt repayment holiday, in certain circumstances. Details are here: https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/sme-recovery-loan-scheme

VICTORIA

There are a myriad of grants and subsidies available to eligible businesses.
They can all be discovered here: https://business.vic.gov.au/grants-and-programs
Business Costs Extension no 4 and 5 (!) The Victorian Government have announced yet a further extension to their business costs grants
The Business Costs Assistance Program Round Four and now 5 provides payments to eligible small to medium businesses in sectors affected by the current restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments.
  • Businesses will be eligible to receive two fortnightly payments between 1 and 29 October on a rising scale.
  • Eligible non-employing businesses will receive $1000 per week, increasing to $2800 a week for an annual payroll of up to $650,000, $5600 a week for a payroll of $650,000 to $3 million and $8400 a week for a payroll of $3 million to $10 million.
  • Businesses that remain closed or severely restricted between 70% and 80% double dose will receive an automatic payment for the period from 29 October to 13 November.
  • Those already in receipt of this program will receive a top up automatically.
  • It appears that there will be no new applications to this scheme being accepted.


NSW

NSW have continued to offer assistance through various means.

The JobSaver Scheme

If you’re a business, sole trader or not-for-profit organisation in NSW and you’ve been impacted by the recent COVID-19 restrictions, you may be eligible for the 2021 COVID-19 JobSaver payment.
JobSaver will provide cash flow support to impacted businesses in Greater Sydney and regional NSW to help maintain their NSW employee headcount.
The payment will be equivalent to 40% of the weekly payroll for work performed in NSW:

  • minimum payment will be $1,500 per week
  • maximum payment will be $100,000 per week.


    • https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/
    If you’re a non-employing business, such as a sole trader, you may be eligible to receive a payment of $1,000 per week.

Micro Business Grant

If you’re a micro-business (small business, sole trader or not-for-profit organisation with aggregated annual turnover between $30,000 and $75,000) impacted by the recent COVID-19 restrictions, you may be eligible to apply for a fortnightly payment of $1,500.
Eligible businesses will need to nominate the 2-week period in which they first experienced the required decline in turnover, on or after the commencement of the micro-business grant on 26 June. Once approved, payments will begin from that nominated fortnight. Payments will be made in arrears.
https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/
Applications for these two schemes closed on October 18 however, do keep watching our blog for continuous updates.