More financial support for local businesses was announced on Wednesday, July 28 with the news that the Greater Sydney lockdown would be extended for a further four weeks.
The State Government announced two new programs as part of their $4.1B financial rescue package – a COVID-19 micro-business grant and a JobSaver Payment.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Adam Crouch, said the programs are in addition to the one-off grants ranging between $7,500 and $15,000 which opened to businesses last week.
“Starting this week, businesses with an annual turnover between $30,000 and $75,000 can receive a tax-free payment of $1,500 per fortnight for as long as the lockdown lasts,” Crouch said.
“This is the first time since the pandemic began that ‘micro’ businesses have received financial support.
“The ‘Job Saver’ program has also gone live on the Service NSW website this week and provides weekly payments between $1,500 and $10,000 for businesses that do not sack their staff.
Crouch said the State Government’s launch of the program was due to the Federal Government’s ‘refusal to provide JobKeeper’.
Service NSW has reportedly hired additional staff to process funding applications within days, rather than weeks, of being received.
Crouch said the financial package also includes payroll tax relief for Central Coast businesses.
“All businesses can defer their monthly payroll tax until October and a 25 per cent reduction in payroll tax is being provided to any business whose annual wages bill is below $10 million,” he said.
An expansion was also made to the COVID-19 Business Support Payment on Wednesday which allows businesses to receive payments of between $1,500 and $100,000 per week based on the level of their payroll.
The maximum turnover threshold was also increased from $50 million to $250 million.
The payment will continue to be calculated based on 40 percent of payroll for businesses that have suffered a 30 percent or more decline in turnover.
For non-employing businesses, such as sole-traders, the payment will remain set at $1,000 per week.
The support will continue to be conditional on businesses maintaining their employee headcount as of July 13 (covering permanent and long-term casual employees) by not taking active steps to terminate their employment.
The expanded payment will take effect from the start of the program – July 18, 2021.
Businesses that have already submitted an application will not need to do anything – their payment will be automatically adjusted consistent with the expanded program.
For more information visit the Service NSW website.
Maisy Rae
Application for the Business Grant was submitted 2 weeks ago and we’re still waiting for an approval and payment to come through. Wondering whether any other businesses have been paid. Don’t hear about actual payments in the media and how businesses are continuing to struggle without these payments coming through…
still waiting for my application lodged the 26th july to start being processed . i have no money left , the stress is building and im trapped with no options at all , rent is due , business insurance as well and my van ran out of rego as i had to funnel the funds to be able to eat the last 2 weeks , its obvious the liberal gov is punishing small cash businesses that they will never feel like they have total control over . what if we are just doing the right thing and they driving us off the edge of a cliff from up there in their religious fantasy land where they actually believe they are better than the common man . politics is criminal ! religion fucks everything . sorry for my uneducated grammar . cbf anymore