GOVERNMENT STIMULUS PACKAGE in response to coronavirus

Monday 16th March 2020
James

The Australian Treasury has released detail on their $17.6bn economic response to the Coronavirus. This is separate to the interest rate cut made by the Reserve Bank of Australia last week, which forms part of the monetary policy response. The governments response targets four main areas:

• Delivering support for business investment

• Cash flow assistance for employers

• Stimulus payments to households to support growth

• Assistance for severely affected regions

The measures we believe will have the biggest impact on the local community and businesses are:

Instant asset write off threshold increasing from $30,000 to $150,000. This means business can immediately deduct assets costing less than $150,000. This change applies until 30 June 2020.

$750 one off payment to Centrelink recipients who, on the 31 March 2020, will receive an eligible payment. This list of payments is comprehensive and includes Age Pension, Disability Pension, Newstart, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, plus a number of other payments. This will be paid automatically in early to mid April.

Up to $25,000 cash flow support to small and medium businesses. This will be made to businesses that withhold tax to the ATO on their employees’ salary and wage, and paid as a credit to monthly or quarterly activity statements. This will be calculated and paid automatically.

Please refer to the below Treasury information sheets for more information.