Posted on March 16, 2020 by Andrew Sullivan
To our valued clients
We want you to know that we take the health and safety of our Clients and Team very seriously at GeersSullivan. We would like to reassure you that we remain vigilant following the advice of the Australian Department of Health and will continue to monitor their advice and act immediately in accordance with their rulings and guidance.
To date, there has been no incidence of COVID-19 within our Team or members of their households. We have instituted measures to mitigate unnecessary risk to ensure that we can continue to deliver a high level of service to you and support you through this uncertain time.
These measures include:
- The ability for our whole Accounting Team to work from home. All of our applications including our phone system are cloud based, so we have the ability to provide an uninterrupted service that is not dependent on one physical location.
- For any Team Members working in our office, to adhere to Department of Health guideline practices like hand washing, sneezing/coughing etiquette and social distancing.
- The use of Video Conferencing applications in order to continue to meet with you if you cannot or would prefer not to have a face to face meeting.
- Educating employees on important prevention measures via up-to-the-minute internal communications.
- Requesting our Team to avoid any person with cold or flu-like symptoms.
- Thorough and regular disinfecting of all hard surfaces including doors, handles, desks, keyboards, monitors and phones.
- All meeting rooms will be thoroughly cleaned after each meeting.
- Limiting visits to our office to clients and team members only.
- Signage outside of our office advising of all measures being taken by our office to maintain health and safety and conditions for anyone entering our office – e.g. the requirement to use disinfecting hand wash before entering our office, acknowledgement by those entering that they have not been in contact with anyone exhibiting any cold of flu-like symptoms, that they or any member of their household have not had any requirement or reason to self-isolate under Australian Department of Health guidelines.
The health and safety of our Team and of our Clients is paramount to us. We value and appreciate your continued support and want you to know we are available to speak with you at any time to provide support to you and your business during these challenging times.
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Posted on March 13, 2020 by Ashley Dawson
The Federal Government has announced a $17.6 billion economic plan to keep Australians in jobs, provide businesses with tax breaks and cashflow help as well as to provide support to Australian households as the world deals with the significant challenges posed by the spread of the coronavirus.
The Government’s economic stimulus package has four parts:
Support for business investment
- From 12 March 2020, the instant asset write off threshold is to be increased from $30,000 to $150,000 and access expanded to include businesses with aggregated annual turnover of up to $500 million (up from $50 million) until 30 June 2020.
- To increase business investment and to support economic growth by providing an investment incentive, starting on 12 March 2020 and continuing through to 30 June 2021, by accelerating depreciation deductions. Businesses with turnover of less than $500 million will increase depreciation deductions claimed on assets by 50% in their tax returns with no corresponding reduction in written down value of assets. This will not apply to second-hand assets. Eligible assets will need to be first used or installed ready for use by 30 June 2021.
Cash flow assistance for businesses
- To help provide temporary cash flow support to employers the government will provide a tax free payment up to $25,000 for eligible small and medium-sized businesses. Businesses with a turnover of less than $50 million that employ staff, between 1 January 2020 and 30 June 2020, will be eligible. The payments will be made based on 50 per cent of their PAYG withheld report on the Business Activity Statements or Instalment Activity Statements between 1 January 2020 and 30 June 2020, up to the $25,000 limit. Where this results in a refund, the government have advised that these will be paid within 14 days.
- To support small businesses who provide jobs to around 120,000 apprentices and trainees the government has offered a 50% wage subsidy for apprentice and trainees wages paid from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020. Eligible employers will be reimbursed up to a maximum of $21,000 per eligible apprentice or trainee ($7,000 per quarter). Where a small business is not able to retain an apprentice, the subsidy will be available to a new employer that employs that apprentice.
Stimulus payments to households to support growth
- A one-off $750 stimulus payment is to be made to pensioners, social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders. The payment will be tax free and will not count as income for Social Security, Farm Household Allowance and Veteran payments. There will be one payment per eligible recipient. If a person qualifies for the one off payment in multiple ways, they will only receive one payment. Payments will be made from 31 March 2020 on a progressive basis, with over 90 per cent of payments expected to be made by mid-April.
Assistance for severely-affected regions
- The Government has set aside an initial $1 billion allocation to provide support to those sectors, regions and communities that have been disproportionately affected by the economic impacts of the Coronavirus, including those heavily reliant on industries such as tourism, agriculture and education. This will include the waiver of fees and charges for tourism businesses that operate in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and Commonwealth National Parks. They will also waive park entry fees for Kakadu, Uluru and Booderee National Parts for the remainder of 2020. It will also include additional assistance to help businesses identify alternative export markets or supply chains. Targeted measures will also be developed to further promote domestic tourism. Further plans and measures to support recovery will be designed and delivered in partnership with the affected industries and communities.
The Government is also offering administrative relief for certain tax obligations, including deferring tax payments up to four months. This is similar to relief provided following the bushfires and is to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. In addition, the ATO will consider ways to enhance its presence in other significantly affected regions to make it easier for people to apply for relief, including considering further temporary shop fronts and face-to-face options.
The Government also committed an additional $2.4 billion to support our health system to manage any further outbreak in Australia and to cover 50 per cent of additional hospital costs incurred by states and territories related to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with, or suspected of having, the Coronavirus.
The Government are acting quickly to legislate the implementation of this package, however, please be aware that no legislative material is currently available.
Should you have any queries regarding the above information, please contact us on (08) 9316 7000.
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