Support for Sole Traders

As many of our clients are sole traders and small businesses, we thought we’d write up a post to summarise some of the support packages the government are putting into place to help those businesses out…

Income support – Sole traders who are unable to continue producing an income due to the virus will be more likely to meet eligibility for the Jobseeker allowance (as well as the Coronavirus supplement of $550 per fortnight) as their assets will not be included in the eligibility assessment for the payment. More info here.

Apprentices and trainees – To encourage businesses to keep their junior staff employed, from early April eligible employers can apply for a subsidy of 50% of their trainee/apprentice’s wages for the 9-month period between January & September. To be eligible, the business has to have less than 20 full-time employees and will undergo an assessment. More info here.

Cash Flow Boost For Employers – If you run a business that generates less than $50 million in turnover per year, and have employees, you may be eligible for a tax-free grant of up to $100,000. According to information released by the government, eligible businesses receive a payment equal to 100% of salary and wages that have been withheld (up to a maximum of $50,000). Your business will be automatically credited this from the ATO upon lodgment of upcoming activity statements, if eligible. More info here.

Instant asset write-off – Sole-traders can now instantly claim a tax deduction for assets installed and ready for use by the 30th of June up to a value of $150,000, as opposed to the usual $30,000 value cap. More info here.

Early access to superannuation – access up to $20,000 of your superannuation balance. To learn more click here.

If you think you may be eligible for any of the above support packages and need some further guidance, don’t hesitate to give us a call and we’ll help out where we can.