Here we go again. Such a pain for everyone. In some cases, it’s not just a pain but it’s financially catastrophic. Businesses in the hospitality, retail, hair & beauty, and arts sectors are particularly hard hit. With the construction industry now shut for at least 2 weeks, this sector is also about to cop it.
So the question everybody asking is – Am I eligible for government assistance? There is separate assistance for workers and businesses, I will only cover businesses assistance here.
The assistance packages for businesses are all run through Services NSW, as opposed to the ATO like previous measures. All businesses will need to go here to see for themselves information on eligibility etc. https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/2021-covid-19-business-grant-guidelines#attachment-a-list-of-highly-impacted-industries. As your accountant we will be able to provide some of the information needed to make the application, but you will need to do the application online yourself as we will not be logging into client services NSW accounts.
There are 2 stimulus measures:
- NSW grants between $7,500 and $15,000 available from today
- Job Saver which will pay up to 40% of your payroll costs capped at $10,000 p.wk available from late July (detail still very skinny on this at the moment).
Both measures require all employees to be kept on and a 30% or greater decline in turnover (as well as other criteria). The way you assess the decline in turnover is still not totally clear, the definition just says they will use the “GST concept” but this doesn’t say whether it must be the BAS method of reporting i.e. cash v accrual, or if you can choose. As with previous measures they seem to announce things and then the detail comes out later, so when we have this information we will advise.
At this point in time right now, the claim/application section of the services NSW website is down (surely they could have seen this coming and increased system capacity!). To make a claim you will need a Services NSW account with your business linked, so if you don’t already have this in place I suggest you do this now so you are ready to make your claim when more detail is released, you have been able to assess your eligibility, and the site comes back online.
We will update you as further information becomes available, please feel free to contact us if you require further information or assistance.
Please note our office is now closed to all clients including dropping in documents or signing documents. If you want to drop in documents you can slide them under the door or post them.
Hang in there ?
Jacob & team
