state (nsw, sa, qld, wa, tas, nt) & federal Government
Small Business support
23 March 2020
New South Wales – COVID-19 – Small Business relief package
- The waivering of payroll tax for businesses with payrolls of up to $10 million for three months (the rest of 2019-20).
- Raising the Payroll threshold limit to $1 million in 2020-21
- Waiving a range of fees and charges for small businesses including bars, cafes, restaurants and tradies.
- Funding toward employing additional cleaners of public infrastructure such as transport assets, schools and other public buildings - $250m
- Funding toward maintenance on public assets including social housing and crown land fencing - $250m
South Australia – COVID-19 – Small Business relief package
- A stimulus package to help drive the South Australian economy and secure local jobs - $350 million
- $22 million State Government injection in nature based tourism infrastructure
- $15 million investment in upgrades of country hospitals
- Planning and Development Fund boosted to $50 million for the year - matched with the local government contribution on a 50:50 basis
Queensland – COVID-19 – Small Business relief package
To support businesses to keep Queenslanders in work.
- Payroll Tax - All Queensland businesses will be able to defer their payroll tax payment for six months.
- $500 million loan facility, interest free for the first 12 months. The $500 million concessional loan facility would comprise loans of up to $250,000 with an initial 12-month interest free period for businesses to retain staff.
Western Australia – COVID-19 – Small Business relief package
The WA Government has committed $607 million to a stimulus package to support WA households and small businesses.
- A one-off grant of $17,500 paid to Small businesses that pay payroll tax
- $1 million payroll tax threshold has been brought forward by six months to July 1, 2020
- Businesses can defer payroll tax payments until July 21, 2020.
- $114 million allocated to additional measures to support small businesses
- Household fees and charges frozen until at least July 1, 2021 - $402 million
- Electricity, water, motor vehicle charges, emergency services levy and public transport fares will be frozen.
- Energy Assistance Payment (EAP) will be doubled to $600 to support vulnerable Western Australians, including pensioners
Tasmania – Covid 19 – Small Business relief package
- $20 million for the provision of interest free loans to businesses in the hospitality, tourism, seafood and exports sectors.
- The loans will be available to small businesses with a turnover of less than $5 million for the purpose of purchasing equipment or restructuring business operations and will be interest free for a period of up to three years.
- Waiving payroll tax for the last four months of this financial year for hospitality, tourism and seafood industry businesses.
- Other small to medium businesses with an annual payroll of up to $5 million will be able to apply, based on the immediate impact of the virus on their businesses, to have their payroll tax payments waived for the three months from 31 March to June 2020.
- Introduction of a youth employment payroll tax rebate scheme for young people from 1 April 2020
- $2.1 million for one-off $5,000 grants for businesses that hire an apprentice or trainee, complementing the Federal Government’s apprenticeship package.
- One-off emergency relief payments of $250 for individuals and up to $1000 for families who are required to self-isolate by public health as a result of Coronavirus.
- 50 per cent discount on liquor licencing fees and waive all application fees for the calendar year 2020, back dated to 1 January 2020
- $100,000 in support to the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Hospitality Association for training and support of workers in the tourism and hospitality sectors over the winter months, to improve productivity and to be ready
Northern Territory – Covid 19 – Small Business relief package
The Northern territory $60 million stimulus package to protect Territorians.
- Expanded Home Improvement Scheme - all Territory homeowners to receive $6000 to undertake renovations and improvements to their property by a local business or tradie
- People will need to put in $2000 to receive the additional $6000 or alternatively they can put in $1000 and receive $4000
- The stimulus package will also give eligible businesses $10,000 for upgrades as a part of a new Business Improvement Scheme aimed at helping businesses attract more customers
- If a business also wants to contribute its own $10,000, the government will pitch in an additional $10,000 for a total of $30,000
22 March 2020
Further UPDATE ON assistance available to BUSINESSES
Please find below a further update on the assistance for businesses as a result of the impacts of COVID-19.
Summary
The Government will today announce a second stage of measures to keep businesses in business and to keep workers in jobs.
This stage of measures is squarely focused on getting businesses and their workers through to the other side of this crisis.
The measures include:
- A wage subsidy for small and medium businesses to save jobs; and
- A guarantee on loans to small and medium businesses so they can keep in business.
1.Support to Keep Australians in Jobs
We are giving businesses a cash payment of up to $100,000 for the period March 2020 to September 2020.
That payment will be worth 100% of the tax those small and medium businesses, with a turnover less than $50 million, are withholding from their employees salary and wages.
The payment will be tax free. It will now also be available to eligible charities or other not-for-profit entities.
How the Payment Works
Eligible businesses that withhold tax to the ATO on their employees’ salary and wages – they report it each month or quarter anyway - will receive a payment equal to 100 per cent of the amount withheld, up to a maximum payment of $100,000.
Eligible businesses that pay salary and wages will receive a minimum payment of $20,000, even if they are not required to withhold tax.
In our first package we announced the cash payment would be 50% of tax withheld worth up to $25,000 in payments or a minimum of $2,000.
This announcement builds on the cash flow boost from the first package worth $6.7 billion. This new measure is worth $25.2 billion so in total it’s worth $31.9 billion.
The Government expects it will benefit around 690,000 businesses employing around 7.8 million people and 30,000 not-for-profits.
We estimate these businesses employ:
- NSW – Around 2.5 million people
- Vic – Around 2 million people
- Qld – Around 1.5 million people
- WA – Around 810,000 people
- SA – Around 480,000 people
- TAS – Around 155,000 people
- NT – Around 63,000 people
- ACT – Around 115,000 people
2. Supporting Small Business to Get to the Other Side With Loans
We are announcing a new Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme to support small and medium business with a turnover less than $50 million.
This measure complements the $8 billion worth of measures the banks announced this week to defer repayments for 6 months for small and medium businesses battling the impacts of coronavirus.
The Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme will be able to be accessed by eligible banks and non-bank lenders.
Details
Under the Scheme, the Commonwealth will guarantee 50%, through the participating banks, of an eligible loan to small and medium enterprise customers that have been impacted by the coronavirus.
The Scheme will have the capacity to support lending of $40 billion to small and medium businesses.
Loans will be used for working capital purposes and be unsecured and it will be for loans granted within 6 months starting 1 April 2020.
The Scheme will apply to new or existing customers of banks and non-bank lenders.
Lenders will not be charged a fee for accessing the Scheme.
It will be repayment free for 6 months.
The maximum loan will be $250,000 for a term up to 3 years.
It will not apply to re-financing of existing customers. Those already have existing loans that will benefit from the ABA announcement.
Through this measure, the Government is offering to guarantee $20 billion.
The Australian banking sector announced on 19 March 2020 significant measures – that many individual banks went further than – to support existing loans. Click here for more info.
Today’s announcement also follows the announcement by the Government on 19 March 2020, together with the Reserve Bank, to inject more than $100 billion into the Australia’s financial system. Please click here for the Government’s release and here for the Reserve Bank’s release.
Further UPDATE - 22 March 2020
FACT SHEETS ON FURTHER assistance available TO BUSINESSES
ASSISTANCE FOR SOLE TRADERS
Today the Government has announced a second set of economic responses which, combined with our previous actions, total $189 billion across the forward estimates, representing 9.7 per cent of annual GDP.
To find out more, please go to www.australia.gov.au
These fact sheets have been updated following today’s further announcements.
The Morrison Government also recognises a significant number of sole traders and Australians who are self-employed have had their income reduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government has announced an expansion to the eligibility to the Job Seeker Payment to support sole traders and the self-employed.
To view the media release in full, please click here.
The Government is also allowing sole traders who have seen their hours of work or income fall 20% or more as a result of COVID-19 to access their superannuation capped at $10,000 this financial year and a further $10,000 next financial year. The withdrawals will be tax free.
Please also go to https://www.australia.gov.au to view all the latest COVID-19 news, updates and advice from Australian Government Agencies.
The Federal Government – COVID-19 – Small Business relief package
1st Tranche
17th March 2020
The Federal Government will introduce a package of Bills to Parliament in the week beginning March 23, 2020 for these measures to come into effect. The initiatives announced by the Prime Minister and Treasurer can be summarised as follows:
- Instant asset write-off threshold - extended from $30,000 to $150,000, with turnover for eligible businesses extended from $50 million to $500 million until 30 June 2020.
- A payment of up to $25,000 - for eligible SMEs with a turnover of less than $50 million that employ staff.
- A 15 month investment incentive for businesses with a turnover of less than $500 million - deduct 50 per cent of the cost of an eligible asset on installation, with existing depreciation rules to apply.
- A 50 per cent wage subsidy for eligible businesses that employ trainees or apprentices - for up to nine months from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020.
- A one-off $750 payment - to social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders.
- A $1 billion payment to communities significantly affected - by the Coronavirus - This includes measures such as the waiver of fees and charges to tourism businesses in certain regions, assistance to help business find alternative export markets or supply chains, and administrative assistance from the ATO to affected businesses.