The events of the past few months have had a huge impact on businesses around the world. If your business income has been affected there are some new initiatives which may assist.

Below is some of the assistance available. These are links to external websites we do not control. Please ensure you do your own research and talk to your accountant about your eligibility.

Government Assistance

Business

The Australian government has announced $189 billion worth of economic responses to help keep the economy going.

Many of these are available to help small business and include payments for businesses who have employees, assistance for apprentice and trainee employer and increased instant asset write-off limits.

Find out more at https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/businesses

ATO

If you have a debt with the tax office or are unable to meet your upcoming obligations with the tax office due to the effect Covid-19 has had on your business, you can request for payments to be deferred to September 14. Simply ring the tax office to discuss your individual circumstances. 

The wait is longer than usual, however, the automatic message said my wait would be over 30 minutes and I was talking to someone in around 10-15 minutes. 

Personal

The government has also increased assistance to Australians including income support payments, payments to support households and temporary early releases of superannuation.

Find out more at https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/households

Facebook 

Facebook has announced $100 million in cash grants and ad credits to 30,000 eligible small businesses. At the moment all you can do is subscribe for updates and more details will be released later. 

Make sure you subscribe at https://www.facebook.com/business/boost/grants

Shopify

Shopify has come to the party with a few assistance measures.

This includes the ability to sell gift cards on any Shopify plans, usually restricted to higher plans only. So if you are unable to trade right now, but want the ability for people to be able to buy gift cards to use in the future, you can now turn this on if you are using Shopify.

For those who are only now moving to online Shopify are offering extended 90-day free trials.

They are also offering $200 million in small business funding by way of loans, however, these are currently restricted to US only.

Find out more about how Shopify are helping at https://www.shopify.com.au/covid19

What Else Can You Do

• Ensure to read our Thrive Guide on how you can put your best foot forward and thrive through uncertainty
• Review your spending 
  • Cancel any unnecessary subscriptions
  • Reduce your Shopify plan if you need to 
  • Hold off on big purchases
• Look after yourself first – your mental health is most important right now
• Surround yourself with a positive community