New support package to keep employees in their jobs

Australian Regional Tourism (ART) strongly welcomes this week’s announcement from the Morrison Government of the record $130 billion JobKeeper package.

The package will deliver $1,500 a fortnight directly to employers to assist them in retaining staff in their businesses. The payment will provide a much needed lifeline and save thousands of jobs in the tourism, events, hospitality and accommodation sectors.

ART have been advocating alongside industry groups for a wage subsidy solution as a priority to support our industry in retaining valued staff during these incredibly challenging times and this will enable businesses to kick-start the recovery process once the crisis has passed.

The subsidy will support eligible employees that have been on the books since 1 March 2020 and are retained or continue to be engaged by that employer. The program commenced yesterday, Monday 30 March, with the first payments to be received by eligible businesses in the first week of May with back payment from the Australian Tax Office.

The package will be available, for a period of six months, to businesses that have:

Annual turnover of less than $1 billion who have had a reduction in revenue of 30% or more since 1 March 2020
Annual turnover of $1 billion or more and have experienced a reduction in revenue of 50% or more over the one-month period
Not-for-profit entities and self-employed individuals that meet the turnover criteria are eligible to apply

This program is in addition to a number of other initiatives recently announced to provide additional resources for mental health, domestic violence support and other relief services.

Australian Government Support for Business

The Morrison Government has announced a number of packages and initiatives to support Australian businesses to manage cash flow challenges and retain their employees during these extremely difficult times. A summary of these as at 31 March 2020, are as follows:

JobKeeper payment
For businesses significantly impacted by the Coronavirus, business owners will be able to access a wage subsidy to continuing paying their employees: fortnightly payment of $1,500 per eligible employee from 30 March 2020, for a maximum of six months. Assistance is to help keep staff and help businesses restart when the crisis is over.

Boosting cash flow for employers
The Government is providing up to $100,000 to eligible small and medium-sized businesses, and not for-profits (NFPs) that employ people, with a minimum payment of $20,000. These payments will help businesses and NFPs with their cash flow so they can keep operating, pay their rent, electricity and other bills and retain staff.
Small and medium-sized business entities with aggregated annual turnover under $50 million and that employ workers are eligible.

Temporary relief for financially distressed businesses
The Government is temporarily increasing the threshold at which creditors can issue a statutory demand on a company and the time companies have to respond to statutory demands they receive. The package also includes temporary relief for directors from any personal liability for trading while insolvent, and providing temporary flexibility in the Corporations Act 2001 to provide temporary and targeted relief from provisions of the Act to deal with unforeseen events that arise as a result of the Coronavirus health crisis.

Increasing the instant asset write-off
The Government is increasing the instant asset write-off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000 and expanding access to include businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million) until 30 June 2020.

Backing business investment
The Government is introducing a time limited 15 month investment incentive (through to 30 June 2021) to support business investment and economic growth over the short term, by accelerating depreciation deductions. Businesses with a turnover of less than $500 million will be able to deduct 50 per cent of the cost of an eligible asset on installation, with existing depreciation rules applying to the balance of the asset’s cost.

Supporting apprentices and trainees
The Government is supporting small business to retain their apprentices and trainees. Eligible employers can apply for a wage subsidy of 50 per cent of the apprentice’s or trainee’s wage for 9 months from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020. Where a small business is not able to retain an apprentice, the subsidy will be available to a new employer that employs that apprentice. Employers will be reimbursed up to a maximum of $21,000 per eligible apprentice or trainee ($7,000 per quarter).

Support for Coronavirus-affected regions and sectors
The Government will set aside $1 billion to support regions most significantly affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. These funds will be available to assist during the outbreak and the recovery. In addition, the Government is assisting our airline industry by providing relief from a number of taxes and Government charges estimated to total up to $715 million.

Not-for-profit organisations
The Government is providing vital support for not-for-profits (NFPs) to withstand the economic impacts of the Coronavirus.

Support for sole traders
The Government is providing vital support to sole traders to withstand the economic impacts of the Coronavirus.

Further details on the Government’s Economic Response are available on Treasury’s website:
https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus