COVID-19 Business & Stimulus Updates

Roberts & Morrow hold ourselves to a high standard of transparent communication with our clients and like you, have been closely monitoring the developing impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Therefore, we would like to update you on the measures we have implemented, as your health and well-being – along with that of our employees – is our #1 priority.

This Live Blog will be updated as frequently as possible to communicate:

1. All relevant and up-to-date Government, Business and Tax updates as they relate to COVID-19.
2. Roberts & Morrow’s current response to COVID-19, including all internal policies and procedures in place to protect our greater community.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

Roberts & Morrow will be providing live updates on our policies as situations can change rapidly. We remain committed to you and to doing our part as an organisation to continually support your needs alongside the health and well-being of all our clients and our staff. We will continue to review our operations are in line with current recommendations and government regulations to ensure we are in the best position to remain at full capacity during this time of uncertainty.

If you have any questions please contact us by email at enquiries@rm.net.au or by calling our offices directly:

CURRENT OFFICE STATUS: DOORS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

RESOURCES FOR CLIENTS

Roberts & Morrow are committed to taking a proactive & reactive approach to our COVID-19 response. We are in the position to continue to serve our clients and consider this a test of our capabilities to change the way we do business.

We will continue to offer our services by:

• Offering remote meetings for clients via phone or virtual options
• Offering document sharing via Email, MYOB Portal and OneDrive links
• Offering digital services through our mobile app including document uploading and signing capabilities.
  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from Apple Store

Please note: 

We understand that all of our clients do not have the ability to send documents electronically and would like to offer the following options for submitting documents:

• Send to us directly via Australia Post (visit our website for our postal address listings)
• Deposit documents via a physical ‘drop box’ at all of our locations
  • Please call your local office during regular hours for more details on how to notify us of a deposit

You can also Follow Us on our social channels as we will be sharing relevant news and updates from credible sources:

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Updated: 04/08/2020 16:00

SUMMARY OF THE ECONOMIC RESPONSE | FEDERAL

The Government’s economic response will support households and business through the period ahead. It is designed to support businesses in managing short-term cash flow challenges, provide support to individuals, severely affected communities and regions, and to ensure the continued flow of credit in the Australian economy. A summary of the first two measures in the response is contained below:

1. Support for individuals and households

(i) Income support for individuals – Over the next six months, the Government is temporarily expanding eligibility to income support payments and establishing a new, time-limited Coronavirus supplement to be paid at a rate of $550 per fortnight. This will be paid to both existing and new recipients of Jobseeker Payment, Youth Allowance JobSeeker, Parenting Payment, Farm Household Allowance and Special Benefit.

(ii) Payments to support households – The Government is providing two separate $750 payments to social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders. The first payment will be made from 31 March 2020 and the second payment will be made from 13 July 2020. Note – The second payment will not be made to those eligible for the Coronavirus supplement mentioned above.

(iii) Temporary early release of superannuation – The Government is allowing individuals affected by the Coronavirus to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation in 2019-20 and a further $10,000 in 2020-21. Individuals will not need to pay tax on amounts released and the money they withdraw will not affect Centrelink or Veterans’ Affairs payments.

(iv) Temporarily reducing superannuation minimum drawdown rates – The Government is temporarily reducing superannuation minimum drawdown requirements for account-based pensions and similar products by 50 per cent for 2019-20 and 2020-21. This measure will benefit retirees with account-based pensions and similar products by reducing the need to sell investment assets to fund minimum drawdown requirements.

(v) Reducing social security deeming rates – On 12 March, the Government announced a 0.5 percentage point reduction in both the upper and lower social security deeming rates. The Government will now reduce these rates by another 0.25 percentage points. As of 1 May 2020, the upper deeming rate will be 2.25 per cent and the lower deeming rate will be 0.25 per cent. Around 565,000 Age Pensioners will, on average receive around $324 more of the Age Pension in the first full year the reduced rates apply.

2. Support for businesses

(i) Boosting Cash Flow for Employers – The Government is enhancing the Boosting Cash Flow for Employers measure it announced on 12 March 2020. The Government is providing up to $100,000 to eligible small and medium-sized businesses, and not-for-profits (NFPs) that employ people, with a minimum payment of $20,000. These payments will help businesses and NFPs with their cash flow so they can keep operating, pay their rent, electricity and other bills and retain staff. Small and medium-sized business entities with aggregated annual turnover under $50 million and that employ workers are eligible. NFPs, including charities, with aggregated annual turnover under $50 million and that employ workers will now also be eligible. Under the enhanced scheme, employers will receive a payment equal to 100 per cent of their PAYG Withholding from their salary and wages (up from 50 per cent), with the maximum payment being increased from $25,000 to $50,000. In addition, the minimum payment is being increased from $2,000 to $10,000. An additional payment is also being introduced in the July — October 2020 period. Eligible entities will receive an additional payment equal to the total of all of the ‘Boosting Cash Flow for Employers’ payments they have received. This means that eligible entities will receive at least $20,000 up to a total of $100,000 under both payments.

(ii) Temporary relief for financially distressed businesses – The Government is temporarily increasing the threshold at which creditors can issue a statutory demand on a company and to initiate bankrupt proceedings against an individual as well as temporarily increasing the time companies and individuals have to respond to statutory demands they receive. The package also includes temporary relief for directors from any personal liability for trading while insolvent, and providing temporary flexibility in the Corporations Act 2001 to provide targeted relief from provisions of the Act to deal with unforeseen events that arise as a result of the Coronavirus health crisis. The ATO will tailor solutions for owners or directors of business that are currently struggling due to the Coronavirus, including temporary reduction of payments or deferrals, or withholding enforcement actions including Director Penalty Notices and wind-ups.

(iii) Increasing the instant asset write-off – The Government is increasing the instant asset write-off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000 and expanding access to include businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million) until 30 June 2020.

(iv) Backing business investment – The Government is introducing a time-limited 15 month investment incentive (through to 30 June 2021) to support business investment and economic growth over the short term, by accelerating depreciation deductions. Businesses with a turnover of less than $500 million will be able to deduct 50 per cent of the cost of an eligible asset on installation, with existing depreciation rules applying to the balance of the asset’s cost.

(v) Supporting apprentices and trainees – The Government is supporting small business to retain their apprentices and trainees. Eligible employers can apply for a wage subsidy of 50 per cent of the apprentice’s or trainee’s wage for 9 months from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020. Where a small business is not able to retain an apprentice, the subsidy will be available to a new employer that employs that apprentice. Employers will be reimbursed up to a maximum of $21,000 per eligible apprentice or trainee ($7,000 per quarter).

3. Supporting the flow of credit

(i) Support for immediate cash flow needs for SMEs – Under the Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme, the Government will provide a guarantee of 50 per cent to SME lenders to support new short-term unsecured loans to SMEs. The maximum total size of loans are $250,000 per borrower.

(ii) Quick and efficient access to credit for small business – The Government is cutting red tape by providing a temporary exemption from responsible lending obligations for lenders providing credit to existing small business customers. This reform will help small businesses get access to credit quickly and efficiently.

The bill containing the first two measures was passed in the parliament on 23 March 2020 with the only amendment being the $550 coronavirus supplement will also be paid to students receiving Youth Allowance, Austudy and Abstudy payments.

A third measure in the response was announced by the Federal Government on Monday 30 March 2020, which announced the introduction of the JobKeeper Payment.

• JobKeeper Payment – The Government announced the JobKeeper Payment for eligible businesses, which may include sole traders, whose turnover had reduced by more than 30 per cent if they have a turnover of less than $1 billion or by more than 50 per cent if they have a turnover of more than $1 billion. Following registration by the eligible business, the Government will provide $1,500 per fortnight per eligible employee for a maximum of 6 months for the period 30 March 2020 to 30 September 2020. Employers will notify employees if they are claiming the fortnightly payment of $1,500. The payments will be subject to income tax, similar to normal wages earnt.

For clarification on all eligibility requirements, easy access to all components of the package and detailed worked examples please refer to the three attachments titled ‘Economic Response To The Coronavirus As At 31 March 2020 Support For Businesses’, ‘Economic Response To The Coronavirus As At 31 March 2020 Support For Individuals And Households’ and ‘Economic Response To The Coronavirus As At 31 March 2020 Overview’ outlining the Australian Government’s Economic Response to the Coronavirus.

JobTrainer: Announced 16, July 2020 

On 16 July, 2020 the Morrison Government announced a $2 billion dollar package to invest in the access and development of new skills for Australians in an increased effort to help bolster the Australian economic recovery from COVID-19. The package would allow Australians the chance to retrain and upskill in order to gain entry into new sectors and provide opportunities for new jobs. The skills package also guarentees support for apprentices by subsidising wages to ensure continued employment and training.

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment website says that further information about these changes will be made available in the coming weeks.

The Treasury’s fact sheet ‘Supporting apprentices and trainees’ has been updated following the above announcement, and it provides an overview of how the scheme currently works and what the key dates are.

Regarding existing and new employees

1. For small businesses, the apprentice or trainee must have been in an Australian Apprenticeship as at 1 March 2020.
2. For medium businesses, the apprentice or trainee must have been in an Australian Apprenticeship as at 1 July 2020.
3. However in both cases, they need not have been ‘on the books’ for an employer at these dates. If the apprentice moves to a new employer before the scheme ends on 31 March 2021, the new employer (of any size business) can receive the subsidy for that apprentice. This is reiterated in the Department of Education, Skills and Employment fact sheet where it says “Any employer (including all small, medium or large businesses and Group Training Organisations) who re-engages an apprentice or trainee displaced from an eligible small or medium business may also be eligible for the subsidy”.

The Treasury’s fact sheet ‘JobKeeper Payment – Frequently Asked Questions’ (see page 13) confirms that the wage subsidy is not available whilst the employer is receiving the JobKeeper Payment. Presumably if the JobKeeper Payment ceases on 27 September as planned, employers who are eligible for the wage subsidy will be able to start/restart receiving the subsidy from 27 September to 31 March 2021.

At this time, the only official information on these measures are contained in the PM’s press release dated 16 July 2020. You can read the full release here: PM’s press release

Updated: 04/08/2020 16:27

INTERNAL MEASURES

What is Roberts & Morrow currently implementing to limit the spread of COVID-19 within our offices and our community?

• Increased employee sanitation and cleaning measures to ensure a clean and safe working environment in our offices.
• All employees are asked to STAY HOME if they are:
  • Feeling unwell
  • Have a family member or reside with someone who is a confirmed case of COVID-19
  • Have been in contact with someone who is a confirmed case of COVID-19
  • Have recently been to a COVID-19 “hot-spot”
  • Are considered to be, or who live with an individual, in a high risk category
• Promoting social distancing protocols such as:
  • Maintaining a distance of four square meters between individuals
  • Limiting face-to-face contact between individuals by encouraging the use of virtual and phone call for all meetings between staff and clients.
  • Limiting all travel or movement of employees between offices (not including essential travel between offices for Partners where necessary).
  • Asking that staff currently capable to work from home to continue to do so