Another tranche of assistance packages was announced last night, the main points are summarised below

For employers

• The BAS credits have been doubled re PAYG salary tax – I have updated the prior post to reflect the new percentages
• Small and medium business THAT EMPLOY SOMEONE will receive between $20k and $100k in additional cash to go towards operating expenses – again this won’t help the sole traders out there. The payment will be equal to the amount of BAS credits already received in the Mar 2020 and June 2020 quarters (between $10k and $50k) and will be paid sometime between July and October 2020.

For individuals

Special early release of super has been announced for two payments of $10k. One this tax year and one next tax year. However, it is generally best not to remove anything from your super fund to avoid having to exist on baked beans in retirement.

To be eligible you must meet one of the following

• you are unemployed
• you are eligible to receive Jobseeker payment, Youth allowance (job seekers), Parenting payment, Special Benefit or Farm Household allowance
• You were made redundant after 1 Jan 2020, or your working hours (and hence pay) were reduced by 20% or more, or if you were a sole trader your business was suspended or your turnover reduced by at least 20%

Applications are made via mygov and not before mid April. When making the 20% comparisons you compare the month of claim to the average of the last six months of 2019.

Eligibility for the Jobseeker payment

The Jobseeker payment is normally both asset and income tested. For Covid-19 claims the asset test is waived but the income test applies. For more information see this link noting that income includes deemed income from investments, real estate income and salary sacrifice amounts. Applications are made via centrelink.

Lindsay 0413 952 180