
07 Sep Get Covid Support. Stay In Business.
The NSW government has made several announcements in relation to government grants and additional assistance to be provided to individuals and small businesses as a result of the recently introduced COVID-19 restrictions.
Small Business Support Grants
The most significant announcement was a package of small business grants designed to help alleviate cashflow constraints while trading is restricted. These grants will assist businesses meet their obligations of essential expenditure where the businesses are unable to qualify for any other government support.
Three different grant amounts will be available for small businesses depending on the decline in turnover experienced during the restrictions:
- $10,000 for a 70% decline
- $7,000 for a 50% decline
- $5,000 for a 30% decline
The grants will be available for businesses, sole traders and non-for-profit organisations and applications will be taken at some point in July with the date to still be confirmed. To apply, businesses will need to demonstrate a decline in turnover across a minimum two-week period after the commencement of major restrictions on June 26.
To successfully apply, the business must also satisfy the following:
- Turnover must exceed $75,000.
- The ABN must be registered in NSW OR the business must be able to demonstrate they are physically located and primarily operating in NSW.
- The business must fall under the NSW Government 2021 payroll tax threshold of $1,200,000 as at 1 July 2020 and have less than 20 full time equivalent employees.**
** Please note that hospitality and tourism businesses will not be required to satisfy point 3. Instead, their Australian wages bill must fall below $10,000,000 as at 1 July 2020.
COVID-19 Disaster Payment
A lump sum payment is available to workers if they have been adversely affected by the lock down orders. You may be eligible if the following apply:
- You can’t attend work and lost income on or after day 8 of a COVID-19 restriction of movement event (which includes the most recent lock down).
- You don’t have access to appropriate paid leave entitlements through your employer.
- You are not getting an income support payment, a state or territory pandemic payment, Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment or state small business payment for the same period.
- You are an Australian resident or hold an eligible working visa.
- You are 17 years or older.
- You live or work in a Commonwealth-declared COVID-19 hotspot, lockdown or period of restricted movement.
- You have liquid assets of less than $10,000.
The amount of the payment differs depending on the amount of work lost. Once confirmed that you are eligible, if you lost less than 20 hours work, you will get $325 for each relevant period of lockdown. If you lost 20 hours or more of work, you will get $500 for each relevant period of lockdown.
Claims can generally be made through myGov.
Other Key Measures
- Dine and discover vouchers are now eligible to be used for takeaway and the program has been extended to allow use up until 31 August 2021.
- There is an optional deferral of payroll tax payments available for businesses in July 2021.
Once businesses are eligible to apply for the small business grants above, we will work with you to get any appropriate claims processed as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns for you or your business concerning eligibility to government grants or other business support measures, please contact the Matrix Norwest team.