COVID-19 Assistance Package
With the current COVID-19 situation it is understandably a stressful time for everyone and there are many questions surrounding what assistance is available for individuals and small businesses.
The federal government has announced a suite of measures to assist individuals and small business.
INDIVIDUALS
Income support for casual workers, sole traders and welfare recipients will soon be rolled out, and will administered by Department of Social Services.
A breakdown of those payments and their timed releases is below:
| WHAT | WHEN |
|---|---|
| Income support for individuals The Government is temporarily expanding eligibility to income support payments and establishing a new, time-limited Coronavirus supplement to be paid at a rate of $550 per fortnight. This would be paid to both existing and new recipients of the eligible payment categories. |
From 27 April 2020 |
| Payments to support households Provide two rounds of $750 payments to those eligible. |
First round from 31 March 2020 Second round from 13 July 2020 |
| Temporary early release of superannuation Enable individuals and sole traders directly impacted by the economic consequences of the Coronavirus to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation, tax-free, in 2019-20, and up to a further $10,000 in 2020-21. No tax will be imposed on withdrawals. |
Applications from April 2020 |
| Temporarily reduce superannuation minimum drawdown rates Reduce the superannuation minimum drawdown rates by 50% for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 income year. |
Immediately |
| Lower the social security deeming rates Lower the social security deeming rates in response to the low interest rate environment. |
From 1 May 2020 |
The Government has also released some more details about the individual supplement payment. It’s called the Coronavirus Supplement, and is a payment of $550 a fortnight to new and existing income support recipients from 27 April 2020 for six months. People will receive their usual payment plus $550 each fortnight for the six month period.
The Coronavirus Supplement will be provided to people receiving:
- JobSeeker Payment
- Sickness Allowance
- Youth Allowance for jobseekers
- Parenting Payment Partnered
- Parenting Payment Single
- Partner Allowance
- Sickness Allowance
- Farm Household Allowance
SMALL BUSINESS
Support is broadly available to help employers keep staff on, and tax relief by way of accelerated depreciation.
A breakdown of these measures is below:
| WHAT | WHEN |
|---|---|
|
Boosting Cash Flow for Employers Enhance the previously announced Boosting Cash Flow for Employers by extending access to not-for-profits, including charities; increasing the maximum total payments to $100,000; increasing the rate of the payment, increasing minimum total payments to $20,000. |
Payments from 28 April 2020, additional payments from 21 July 2020 |
|
Temporary relief for financially distressed businesses Help businesses get through a temporary period of insolvency, by temporarily providing higher thresholds and more time to respond to demands from creditors and providing temporary relief from directors’ personal insolvent trading liability. |
|
|
Increasing the instant asset write-off Lifting the threshold to $150,000 (from $30,000) – and making more businesses eligible to use it us to a turnover of $500 million. |
Immediately, with deductions to be included in 2019-20 tax returns |
|
Backing business investment Offering businesses a time-limited incentive to invest, by accelerating depreciation deductions. |
Immediately, with deductions to be included in 2019-20 tax returns |
|
Supporting apprentices and trainees Wage assistance to help small businesses to keep their apprentices and trainees. |
Applications open from early April |
|
Support for Coronavirus affected region and communities Financial support to help regions and communities most affected by the Coronavirus to recover. |
As soon as practicable |
|
Support for Australian airlines and airports Provide initial support to our airline industry through up to $715 million of relief from a range of taxes and Government charges. |
1 February 2020 to 30 September 2020 |
|
Government support for immediate cash flow needs of SMEs Establish a loan guarantee arrangement between the Government and participating banks to cove the immediate cash flow needs of SMEs. |
Commence by early April 2020 and be available for new loans until 30 September 2020 |
|
Australian Office of Financial Management Support Provided the Australian Office of Financial Management with an investment capacity of $15 billion to invest in structured finance market used by smaller lenders. |
|
|
Reserve Bank of Australia Support A package of RBA measures to support the Australian economy. |
We know things are changing rapidly. We will look to keep you updated as often as possible and, as always, contact the team at Bosco Accounting if there’s anything we can do to help.
