• Deferring by up to four months the payment date of amounts due through the business activity statement (including PAYG instalments), income tax assessments, fringe benefits tax assessments and excise.
• Quicker GST refunds for businesses on a quarterly reporting cycle to opt into monthly GST reporting.
• Vary Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) Instalment to zero for the March 2020 quarter. Businesses that vary their PAYG instalment to zero can also claim a refund for any instalments made for the September 2019 and December 2019 quarters.
• Remitting any interest and penalties, incurred on or after 23 January 2020, that may have been applied to tax liabilities.
• Low Interest payment plans for affected businesses to help them pay their existing and ongoing tax liabilities.

The Australian Tax Office also has a dedicated page to support large business impacted by COVID-19 to address a broader range of administrative and technical issues that are arising for you including matters that concern:

• PAYGW issues for your employees
• fringe benefits tax
• GST
• tax residency
• permanent establishments
• thin capitalisation
• lodgement implications
• responding to ATO information requests
• compliance engagements.

• Enhancing the instant asset write-off scheme Lifting the threshold to $150,000 (from $30,000) and expanding access to businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million) until 30 June 2020. The threshold applies on per asset basis, so eligible businesses can immediately write-off multiple assets. Car write-offs are still subject to the luxury car tax limit ($57,581)
• A 50% accelerated depreciation deductions over and above existing deductions
• Boosting cash flow for employers. Helping small and medium businesses with aggregated annual turnover under $50 million to cover the costs of employee wages and salaries equal to 50 per cent of PAYG withheld for businesses that withhold tax, with a minimum of $2,000 and a maximum of $25,000 over six months. Businesses that pay salary and wages but are not required to withhold tax will also receive the minimum payment of $2,000. This will be a tax free payment, benefiting around 690,000 businesses employing 7.8 million people.
• A 50% wage subsidy for apprentices. Helping businesses retain apprentices and trainees by offering a wage subsidy of 50 per cent of the apprentice's or trainee's wage for nine months. The subsidy of up to a maximum of $21,000, will be available to businesses employing fewer than 20 full-time employees who retain an apprentice or trainee, or, where a small business is not able to retain an apprentice, the subsidy will be available to a new employer. This will support up to 70,000 small businesses employing around 117,000 apprentices
• A one-off stimulus payment of $750 for people receiving benefit payments. The Australian Government will provide financial assistance to around 6.5 million lower-income Australians. One-off payments of $750 will be paid to around 6.5 million lower-income Australians, including pensioners, other social security and veteran income support recipients and eligible concession card holders. The payment will be tax free and will be paid from 31 March 2020.
•  Regional and Community support fund. The Government has set aside an initial $1 billion allocation to support those regions and communities that have been disproportionately affected by the economic impacts of the Coronavirus. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) will also provide administrative relief for certain tax obligations (similar to relief provided following the bushfires) for taxpayers affected by the Coronavirus outbreak, on a case by case basis.

For more information on the Federal Government's Economic Response to Coronavirus visit https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus.

The New South Wales State Government has announced a $2.3 billion coronavirus stimulus package which includes:

• Payroll Tax Waiver - $450 million has been allocated to waive payroll tax for businesses with payrolls of up to $10 million for three months. The State Government said these businesses would not have to pay the tax for the rest of this financial year.
• The next round of payroll tax cuts has also been brought forward to raise the threshold limit to $1 million for the next financial year.
• Extra health funding. The Department of Health has a series of fact sheets here. They published how to protect yourself today here. 

There are also a couple of helpful articles on how to communicate with your teams as you deal with coronavirus and how to work from home.

Beyond Blue support service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to support the mental health of people affected on 1300 224 636. Beyond Blue also has free information resources online. 

Emotional responses after a disaster has information about normal responses to disasters, what's beyond a normal response and some tips on dealing with the emotional impact of a disaster.

More detailed information is available in the booklet Looking after yourself and your family after a disaster 

We hope that you maintain your health and well being and find a positive focus during this time. We are here for you. Please do reach out if you need help or support.

Stay well Australia, we are thinking of you.

AV Chartered Accountants - Committed to Your Business Success

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