Firstly I have to apologise for the number of emails I'm sending as there are a number of new changes coming through that directly impacts all of us , so I wanted to provide a brief summary of the new initiatives that came through yesterday morning(Sunday 22.3.2020) from the Treasurer on the 2nd part of the stimulus.
There are a substantial amount of details to be determined with most of these initiaitives and I'll be working through them all to get processes in place to enable access to them over the coming weeks as most of them will start to take effect in April.
Below is a short summary of each initiative from Sunday:
Coronavirus supplement - Eligible sole traders and employees will be eligible for a supplement payment of $550 per fortnight which will last for 6 months. It will be income tested only and as long as you meet the critieria you will receive the full payment.
Another round of stimulus payments of $750 to social security, veteran and income support recipients . Timing for this is around 13th of July.
Early release of super - Allow access of $10k in super for 2019/2020 year and same for 2020/21 year . This is to be done through Mygov. Amounts received will not be taxed or affect other benefits received.
Reduce Superannuation minimums for account based pensions by 50% for the 2019/2020 year and 2020/2021 years. This measure is meant to help people keep more in super if they wish.
Reducing the deeming rates for income support payment , mainly aged pensioners.
Cash payments to business from $20k to $100k for employers that employee people. This is the same scheme announced on the 12th of March and operates in the same way but just increased. It is based on th PAYG withholding made on behalf of employees, not just because you are in business. I.e. if you are not employing people in your business, then my reading is that this benefit will not apply to you, which I have to admit is disappointing to those self employed people with contractors.
Government will now guarantee 50% of all new loans issued to SME's from the banks. After watching the annoucement several times, my understanding is that these types of loans are unsecured so how the banks will work with this new measure is anyone's guess. I think this is a wait and see measure as I can't see the banks exposing themselves to further losses on the remaining 50% portion to businesses they think is unviable, considering that you can only imagine how much there will already be losing due to COVID 19.
Government is increasing the limits that a stat demand can be raised on. Currently it is $2k but I believe it will be rasied to $20k. This basically means that if a company owes you money , you can wind up there business if the amount owing is under $20k.
I will be getting more details and updates on these measures and how they will apply over the coming month and communicate this through to you once received and analysed.
