On Sunday 22 March 2020, the Federal Government announced a further $66 billion support package in addition to the previous $17.6 billion package announced on 12 March 2020.
The new measures announced are:
· Expanding the eligibility for people to access income support payments for those who have lost work or had their income reduced by 20% or more;
· Establishing a new Coronavirus supplement of $550 per fortnight to be paid to existing and new recipients of JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance Job Seeker, Parenting Payments, Farm Household Allowance and Special Benefit. This will be paid from 27 April 2020 and last 6 months;
· A further $750 payment in addition to the $750 payment announced in the 12 March 2020 economic stimulus package for social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession cardholders;
· Increasing the wage subsidies to $100,000 from $25,000 with a minimum payment of $20,000. These subsidies are based on wages and PAYG withheld and will be paid upon lodgement of quarterly/monthly BAS statements. 100% of PAYG withheld will be able to be claimed and eligible businesses will receive these tax-free payments from 28 April 2020 and 28 July 2020;
· Access to government guaranteed unsecured loans, capped at $250,000 starting early April. SMEs are encouraged to get in touch with their bank to discuss their arrangements;
· Allowing individuals in financial stress to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation in 2019/20 and a further $10,000 in 2020/21, subject to certain rules;
· Temporarily reducing superannuation minimum draw downs for account based pensions by 50% for 2019/20 and 2020/21.
· Reducing social security deeming rates by a further 0.25 percentage points. As of 1 May 2020, the lower deeming rate will be 0.25 per cent and the upper deeming rate will be 2.25 per cent;
· Relief for directors from any personal liability for trading while insolvent;
· Increase to the current minimum threshold for creditors issuing a statutory demand on a company under the Corporations Act 2001 from $2,000 to $20,000 for the next 6 months; and
· The Corporations Act 2001 has been amended to provide temporary relief to companies that deal with unforeseen events that occur due to the Coronavirus.
To find out more about how this affects your or your business, please contact us.