The support available to individuals and business has been constantly evolving and changing. Here’s a summary of where support stands around the country.

For individuals

From 2 August 2021, the COVID-19 Disaster Payment has increased to a maximum of $750 per week for those who have lost 20 hours of work or more, and $450 for those who have lost between 8 and 20 hours of work. In most cases, the payment now applies from day 1 of a lockdown. In general, you need to be living in, or impacted by Commonwealth declared lockdown to receive the payment although some States have funded an extension of the payment beyond hotspot areas.

A special separate $200 a week ‘top-up’ payment has been added for those currently receiving an income support payment through social security, ABSTUDY Living Allowance, Dad and Partner Pay or Parental Leave Pay in addition to their existing payment, if they can demonstrate they have lost more than 8 hours of work and meet the other eligibility requirements for the COVID-19 Disaster Payment. The payment was put in place because people receiving income support payments are not eligible for the COVID-19 Disaster payment.

New South Wales business

In New South Wales, the following grants and payments are accessible:

• Up to $100,000 in weekly JobSaver cashflow support payments. Payments are based on 40% of your NSW payroll payments. Eligible businesses without employees that meet the eligibility criteria (such as sole traders with no employees), can access a payment of $1,000 per week.
• Up to $15,000 through the expanded NSW 2021 COVID-19 business grants program
• NSW micro-business grants

The decline in turnover test required for the JobSaver, COVID-19 business and micro-business grants has been causing a lot of angst but some additional flexibility has been provided. Businesses and non-profit entities can now pass this test if they can show a decline in turnover of at least 30% due to the Public Health Order over a minimum 2-week period within the relevant test period compared to:

• The same period in 2019;
• The same period in 2020; or
• The 2-week period immediately before the start of the relevant test period.

The test period depends on which payment you are looking at:

• COVID-19 business grant: 26 June 2021 to 17 July 2021 (this is changed to 27 May 2021 to 17 July 2021 for entities on the NSW border with Victoria);
• JobSaver and the micro-business grant: 26 June 2021 until the Greater Sydney lockdown ends.

This additional flexibility is helpful for businesses that started after the comparison period in 2019 and for those that have undertaken an acquisition, disposal or restructure.

Queensland business

$5,000 Business Support Grants are available for those impacted by the lockdown from Saturday, 31 July 2021. Your business does not have to be in the local government areas locked down but needs to be impacted by it. To access the grant, you will need to show a decline in turnover of at least 30%. The grants are available to businesses with a turnover of $75,000 or more and annual Queensland payroll of less than $10 million. Applications open mid-August. See Business Queensland for details.

South Australia

Grants of $3,000 for employing businesses and $1,000 for non-employing businesses are available to businesses that experienced a decline in turnover of at least 30% as a result of the health restrictions from 20 July 2021. The grants are available to those with a turnover of $75,000 or more and Australia wide payroll of less than $10 million. See COVID-19 Business Support Grant – July 2021 for details.

More funding for Victorian SMEs

There are two main streams for grants in Victoria:

• Those who qualified for the Business Costs Assistance Program Round Two or the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021; and
• Businesses that previously did not access grants

Existing grant beneficiaries
If your business previously received the Business Costs Assistance Program Round Two or the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021, additional grants of $2,800 for the Business Costs Assistance Program Round Two and up to $20,000 for the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021 have been announced. Your business cannot retrospectively apply for these grants. See Helping Victorian Businesses Who Need It Most.

New grants
For businesses that did not access previous grants, the Business Costs Assistance Program Round Two July Extension offers grants of $4,800 for employing and non-employing business depending on your sector. For those in the hospitality sector, a new Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021 July Extension is available offering grants of up to $7,200 for each eligible premises. Applications for both grants close 20 August 2021.

A new Small Business COVID Hardship Fund grant of up to $8,000 has been announced for businesses that are not eligible for existing support funding. To access the grant, your business must be severely impacted by the COVID-19 lockdowns with a decline in turnover of 70% or more. No further details are available at present.

Other support
For Alpine businesses, additional grants between $5,000 and $20,000 will be available to 430 Alpine based businesses. See the Alpine Resorts Winter Support Program (closes 20 August 2021).

Rent relief for commercial tenants is also now in place for businesses that have suffered a decline in turnover of at least 30% as a result of COVID-19. Landlords will be required to provide proportional rent relief in line with a business’s reduction in turnover and mediation is available through the Victorian Small Business Commission. A hardship fund will be established for landlords providing rent relief although no details are available as yet.

Please contact us if you would like support to prepare for, or to access, the support you need.

From 1 July 2021, the maximum number of members a Self Managed Super Fund can have increased from four to six. Why would you have a fund with six members and what are the implications?

Recently enacted laws increased the maximum number of allowable members in an SMSF and small APRA fund from four to six.

Currently, over 70% of SMSFs have just two members and those with four members represent only 4% of the SMSF population. The use of six member funds is likely to be small but adds additional choice and flexibility.

Family groups

Six member funds provide family groups with a vehicle for controlling superannuation savings and investment strategies. For families with more than four members, previously the only real option was to create two SMSFs (incurring extra costs) or place their superannuation in a large fund.

A larger fund also offers a level of protection if a fund member is travelling overseas for a prolonged period of time. The residency rules require, amongst other things, 50% of members measured by market value to be in Australia.

Estate planning

Estate planning is a benefit of the new laws particularly tax-effective intergenerational wealth transfer as the assets of a fund generally are not part of the estate. Take the example of a family business that holds the commercial property of the business in their family SMSF. If the parents die, the children might keep running the business and maintain the commercial property within the SMSF as an asset. Holding assets within the SMSF also provides a level of asst protection from creditors.

The problem areas

• Investment decisions within a fund - Problems can occur when members have different investment needs, for example parents might be closer to retirement while the children are focussed on the longer term. The investment strategy of the fund may not meet everyone’s requirements.
• Disputes – the more members in a fund the greater the potential for disputes. For those with legal capacity to be a trustee (18 or over), the rules relating to the appointment and dismissal of trustees, voting rights and meetings need to be clear.
• What happens when a member dies – steps need to be taken to ensure that when a member of the fund dies, their wishes are respected. For example, appointing a legal personal representative as trustee, reversionary pensions or binding death nominations.

Who cannot have a six member fund?

Not all SMSFs will have the option to allow six members because in some instances, the number of individual trustees that a trust can have is limited to less than five or six trustees by State legislation (Queensland for example). In these cases, fund members might opt to use a corporate trustee.

Administrative impact on an SMSF

The change from four to six members updates the definition of an SMSF, and as a result, has a practical impacts across other Acts and Regulations.

Sign-off requirements for an SMSF’s accounts and financial statements will change. Currently, if an SMSF has more than one director member, its accounts and statements must be signed by at least two members in their capacity as individual trustee or as a director of a corporate trustee. As there cannot be more than four members of an SMSF under the current rules, these requirements ensure that all members sign the accounts and statements of SMSFs with one or two members. For SMSFs with three or four members, at least half of the members must sign its accounts and statements for an income year. Under the updated requirements, an SMSF with one or two directors or individual trustees must have its accounts and statements signed by all of those directors or trustees. For all other SMSFs (that is, those with between three and six directors or trustees), the accounts and statements of the SMSF must be signed by at least half of the directors or individual trustees.

In an attempt to reign in undeclared income, proposed new laws will require platform providers in the sharing economy to report all transactions through their platforms.

Traditional employment models have shifted in favour of more flexible options including contracting, self-employment and use of labour hire. Consumers are increasingly paying to ‘use’ rather than ‘own’ assets, creating new income opportunities for the owners of assets – like AirBNB. And, the Government believes they are missing out on tax revenues from these payments – income tax from income earned, GST on ride sharing (because the ATO considers all ride sharing a taxi service and as a result GST applies), and capital gains tax on the sale of property used to earn income, etc.

While data matching programs have targeted sharing platforms previously, the proposed laws provide a structured and consistent framework to recognise all revenue earned in Australia through these platforms.

The laws target electronic platforms capturing those that act as intermediaries between buyers and sellers, to more complex arrangements where the platform operator assumes much of the inherent risk in the transaction between the buyer and the seller, play a quality assurance role, and ensure a seamless experience for the buyer and seller. The laws do not rely on the platform processing payments and will reach to those who use third party payment providers.

If implemented, the laws will apply to ride sharing and accommodation services from 1 July 2022, and all other services from 1 July 2023.

Support is available if you are impacted by the Victorian lockdowns.

Australia

COVID-19 Disaster Payment

If a state public health order for COVID-19 adversely affects you, Services Australia provides a support payment. This weekly payment helps if you can't earn an income because of a COVID-19 lockdown, hotspot or period of restricted movement.

To be eligible:

• you can’t attend work and have lost income because of COVID-19 restrictions
• you can't access appropriate paid leave entitlements from your employer
• you’re not receiving an income support payment, a state or territory pandemic payment, Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment or state small business payment for the same period.

The payment is:

• $600 each week if a person has lost 20 hours or more of work a week, or
  $375 each week if a person has lost between 8 and 20 hours of work.

Find out more and apply

Bank support for Australian customers

Business and home loan customers impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns across Australia are encouraged to contact their bank to see what support may be available.

Find out more

Victoria

Business support payment

Businesses that successfully applied for the Business Costs Assistance Program Round Two (from the May/June 2021 lockdown) will automatically receive a top-up payment of $4800 ($2,000 announced 16th July, and a further $2,800 announced 21 July).

Businesses that successfully applied for the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021 (from the May/June 2021 lockdown) will automatically receive a top-up payment of $7200 ($3,000 announced 16th July, and a further $4,200 announced 21 July).

Businesses that didn't previously apply or have become eligible to apply for the Business Cost Assistance Program or the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021, can apply for July lockdown support payments.

Micro businesses that aren't eligible for state government business support payments because they're not registered for GST can apply to Services Australia for the COVID-19 Disaster Payment. The Victorian Government will establish a concierge service to help these businesses access this support.

There is also additional financial support for Alpine businesses, public event organisers and suppliers and live performers and their suppliers.

Find out more

Mediation for commercial tenants and landlords

The Victorian Small Business Commission (VSBC) is providing free and impartial mediation to help resolve commercial rent relief disputes in response to the pandemic.
Since the Victorian Government's Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme ended, commercial tenants are no longer legally entitled to rent relief. The VBSC can help you address rent relief agreements.

Find out more