With Victorian lockdown restrictions extended until at least Tuesday 27 July at 11.59pm, the Victorian and Federal Governments have announced additional assistance measures to bolster the original support announced on 15 July 2021.
An additional $282.5 million in funding has been allocated to help Victorian businesses and sole traders impacted by the lockdown restrictions. The funding will be allocated across several key business programs including:
A payment of $4,200 will be made to eligible Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund operators. This makes the total payment $7,200, up from the previous $3,000 available under the fund for licensees operating a restaurant, hotel, café, pub, bar, club or reception centre that is registered to serve food and alcohol.
A payment of $2,800 will be made to Business Costs Assistance Program recipients to assist eligible small to medium businesses most affected by the lockdown. This makes the total payment available under the program $4,800, up from the previous $2,000.
Micro-businesses not registered for GST can receive a disaster payment of either $600 or $375 per seven days for individuals that lose a certain number of hours of work per week because of the lockdown.
On top of any entitlements under the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund or Business Costs Assistance Program, $1.2 million has been allocated to provide eligible alpine hospitality, retail, accommodation and experience operators with an additional $3,000. Note, eligible businesses in this industry can already receive grants of up to $15,000.
Eligible public events and public event suppliers can receive up to $25,000 or $10,000 of support respectively for events that have been cancelled because of the lockdown.
Eligible presenters and suppliers whose live events have been cancelled because of the lockdown, can receive up to $7,000 and $2,000 respectively.
Eligible community sport and active recreation organisations can receive $2,000 for events that had to be cancelled or postponed because of the lockdown.
If your business did not apply for any of these support programs during previous lockdowns, or you were ineligible to apply but are now eligible, you can apply for the July lockdown support payments, which will be considered outside of the automatic top-up process.
Your Crowe adviser can help you identify the support you are eligible for and assist with your applications. Please reach out to them for assistance, or contact the Crowe Tax Advisory team.