The second round of stimulus announced by the NSW Government on 27 March 2020 focused on small businesses and keeping people in jobs working side by side with he Federal Government Stimulus package.
The key announcement in the stimulus was the creation of a $1 billion Working for NSW fund to sustain business, create new jobs and retrain employees.
The Working for NSW fund includes a Small Business Support Grant of $10,000 which will be available to eligible NSW small business owners who have been impacted by COVID – 19. To be eligible business will need to satisfy the following criteria:
- have between 1-19 employees and a turnover of more than $75,000
- a payroll below the NSW Government 2019-20 payroll tax threshold of $900,000
- have an Australian Business Number as at 1 March 2020, be based in NSW and employ staff as at 1 March 2020
- be highly impacted by the Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order 2020 issued on 30 March 2020
- use the funding for unavoidable business costs such as utilities, overheads, legal costs and financial advice
- provide appropriate documentation upon application.
Eligible industries are those that have been subject to closure or are highly impacted by NSW Government health directions in relation to COVID 19.
Applications will be available from 17 April 2020.
Other key elements of the second stimulus package announced by the NSW Government include:
- deferral of payroll tax for businesses with payrolls over $10 million per annum for six months (potentially up to $4 billion deferred). Businesses with payrolls of $10 million per annum or less received a three-month waiver on payroll tax for the months of March, April and May in the first package. Those businesses will now receive an additional three months deferral,
- deferral of gaming tax for clubs, pubs and hotels, and lotteries tax for six months, conditional on these funds being used to retain staff,
- deferral of the parking space levy for six months
- deferral of rents for six months for commercial tenants with less than 20 employees in all Government-owned properties,
Additional measures contained in the package include:
- $34 million boost in funding to prevent homelessness,
- $30 million to boost the Energy Accounts Payments Assistance scheme,
- $10 million to support charities and $6 million additional funding for Lifeline’s operations in NSW.
Contact one of our accountants in North Sydney for further information on how to access the virus stimulus measures.
