Possible Action Required: Assistance for your Business to cope with the CoronaVirus effects (Business Clients)

Here is a 2-minute email with some insights to help you during this difficult time with the Coronavirus (or COVID-19) affecting all of us.

As a business owner, you need to face the possibility of team members being absent from your workplace, product supply issues and demand for your services and products reducing over the short term.

There are 3 urgent things you need to be aware of:

1. Government Stimulus Package – Our Tax Planning meeting with you this year will be VITAL!
2. Business Continuity Planning – ACCESS TO BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN HERE
3. Get your Will and EPOA updated / set up NOW

1. GOVERNMENT STIMULUS PACKAGE – OUR TAX PLANNING WITH YOU THIS YEAR WILL BE VITAL!

The Australian Government has just released a $17.6 billion economic stimulus package. The package has been marketed as a measure to protect the economy by maintaining confidence, supporting investment and keeping people in their jobs.

The key tax and stimulus measures include:

Business Investment

• From Thursday 12 March 2020, the instant asset write-off threshold has been increased from $30,000 to $150,000 until 30 June 2020.

Cashflow Assistance

• Tax-free payments of up to $25,000 for eligible small and medium businesses based on their PAYG withholding obligations. This is not a cash payment, but it is a credit equal to 50% of the PAYG amounts withheld from salary and wages paid to employees.

Businesses that lodge activity statements on a quarterly basis will be eligible to receive the credit for the quarters ending March 2020 and June 2020. Business that lodge on a monthly basis will be eligible for the credit for the March 2020, April 2020, May 2020 and June 2020 lodgements.

If a business pays salary and wages to employees but is not required to withhold any tax, then a minimum payment of $2,000 will still be made. The minimum $2,000 payment will be applied to the first activity statement lodgement.

• Wage subsidies to support the retention of apprentices and trainees – Employers with less than 20 full-time employees may be entitled to apply for Government funded wage subsidies amounting to 50% of an apprentice's or trainee's wage for up to nine months from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020. The maximum subsidy for each apprentice/trainee is $21,000.

Individual Assistance

• Tax-free payments of $750 to social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders. It is estimated that around half of those who will benefit will be pensioners. These payments will commence to be automatically made from 31 March 2020.

2. BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING

As a business owner, now is the time to plan for employees being away from your workplace, shortages of supply, reduction in sales, and the possibility of your workplace being closed for a short period of time if everyone is being forced to self-quarantine.

Over the next few weeks, we suggest you consider and/or call us to discuss the following:

• Employees working from home [if at all possible], and workplace obligation
• How to pay your bills in the short term if your sales start to dry up
• How to communicate in a reassuring way with your clients and customers
• How to keep things moving with your business

We're not suggesting in any way that we have all the answers, but it is important for us to work with you and help you and plan for what will happen in the weeks and months ahead.

Contact us TODAY to book in a 30 minute phone call or Zoom online meeting so we can discuss your business situation and make plans to assist you.

3. GET YOUR WILL AND EPOA UPDATED / SET UP NOW

If you have to self-quarantine or are admitted to hospital, if you don't have an EPOA then no-one else can make important business or financial decisions on your behalf.

As a business owner, it is 100% essential that you have an up to date EPOA and Will, and that your family know where these are stored. Please email us if you need a referral to one of our legal contacts.

NEXT STEPS

These are times when we need to stay calm and rely on reliable news sources and information from State and Australian Government websites. What you see on social media may be panicky and unreliable information!



Our team are here to help you. Please reply to this email or phone us on 02 9686 3130 if you need any assistance!

Kind regards,

www.gjbarnett.com.au

Disclaimer: All information provided in this newsletter is of a general nature only and is not personal financial or investment advice. Also, changes in legislation may occur frequently. We recommend that our formal advice be obtained before acting on the basis of this information.