NSW Covid-19 Support Packages 14 July 2021

The NSW Premier and Treasurer have announced the following funding packages:

COVID-19 Disaster Payment

From week 4 of a lockdown because of a Commonwealth declared hotspot, payments will rise as follows:

- from $500 to $600 each week if a person has lost 20 hours or more of work a week

- from $325 to $375 each week if a person has lost between 8 and 20 of work a week

- a person can still work and receive payments as long as their hours have been reduced

Information on how to apply for this payment can be found on https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/covid-19-disaster-payment

Small and Medium Businesses

- An extension to the previous announced business grants program https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/2021-covid-19-business-grant, providing eligible businesses with wages below $10M grants between $7,500 and $15,000 to cover the first three weeks of restrictions.

- A new grants program for smaller micro businesses with turnover of between $30,000 and $75,000 which experience a decline in turnover of 30%. Businesses will be eligible for a $1,500 payment per fortnight of restrictions.

- Additional scheme to provide cashflow support to businesses with payments of 40% of their NSW payroll payments at a minimum of $1,500 and a maximum of $10,000 per week. Applies to businesses with turnover between $75k and $50M who can demonstrate a 30% decline in turnover compared with an equivalent two-week period in 2019. Businesses must retain their full time, part time and long term casual staffing level as of 13 July 2021. For non-employing businesses, such as sole traders, the payment will be $1,000 a week.

- Payroll tax waivers of 25% for businesses with Australian wages of between $1.2M and $10M that have experienced a 30% decline in turnover, or payroll tax deferrals and interest free payment plans. Service NSW will be managing the business support programs above. Applications for the expanded business grant scheme will open on 19 July and the business cashflow support scheme on 26 July. Payments are expected to commence for the two programs from 23 and 30 July respectively. Businesses can register their interest from today at https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/covid-19-business-support-2021

In the meantime, the NSW Government is recommending the following steps for small businesses to refer to so they can ensure they are able to complete their application:

• Make sure your business and contact details are up-to-date with the Australian Business Register (ABR) https://www.abr.gov.au/

• Ensure your personal, contact and business details are up-to-date in your MyServiceNSW Account https://api.service.nsw.gov.au/as/authorization.oauth2?client_id=apigee_myaccount&response_type=code&scope=openid%20profile%20email&redirect_uri=https://api.g.service.nsw.gov.au/v1/identity/oauth/callback&state=rrt-5733295131579353709-a-gsy1-18897-1264974-5&nonce=RQuCilxkFB3ZYZxQhNgVIoPF2IME9ggRujgtDFEbN1Q&code_challenge=aEDFYWDiUfS5yzt2we2E8AvsBpaI4nrIYpQzU-Nlmms&code_challenge_method=S256#/email and your business profile https://mybusiness.service.nsw.gov.au/business-profile

• If you don't have one, create a MyServiceNSW Account https://account.service.nsw.gov.au/createaccount and business profile.

Residential and commercial land tax

- A capped grant of $1,500 for residential landlords who are not liable to pay land tax, and who reduce rent for tenants.

- Land tax relief equal to the value of rent reductions provided by commercial, retail and residential landlords to financially distressed tenants, up to 100% of the 2021 land tax year liability.

Residential, retail and commercial tenants

- Introduction of legislative amendments to ensure a short-term eviction moratorium for rental arrears where a residential tenant suffers loss of income of 25% due to Covid-19 and meets a range of criteria.

- No recovery of security bonds, or lockouts or evictions of impacted retail and commercial tenants prior to mediation.

If you require any assistance with this, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

Important: Clients should not act solely on the basis of the material contained in this newsletter. Items herein are general comments only and do not constitute or convey advice per se. Also changes in legislation may occur quickly. We therefore recommend that our formal advice be sought before acting in any of the areas. Client Alert is issued as a helpful guide to clients and for their private information. Therefore it should be regarded as confidential and not be made available to any person without our prior approval.