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Financial support for Australian Sailing affiliated clubs impacted by COVID-19

Published Mon 23 Mar 2020

With recent developments regarding the Coronavirus outbreak in Australia, Australian Sailing affiliated clubs are going to face major operational, financial and logistical challenges.

These challenges with vary from club to club, and as we have seen they will evolve quickly and often without much notice.

The Federal Government along with Premiers and Chief Ministers have agreed to implement, through state and territory laws, new Stage 1 restrictions on social gatherings, to be reviewed on a monthly basis.

Australians should expect these measures to be in place for at least 6 months.

The following facilities will be restricted from opening from midday local time 23 March 2020:

Pubs, registered and licenced clubs (excluding bottle shops attached to these venues), hotels (excluding accommodation)
Gyms and indoor sporting venues
Cinemas, entertainment venues, casinos, and night clubs
Restaurants and cafes will be restricted to takeaway and/or home delivery
Religious gatherings, places of worship or funerals (in enclosed spaces and other than very small groups and where the 1 person per 4 square metre rule applies)
Isolated remote community hubs are not included in these restrictions

These measures also apply to outdoor spaces associated with the above venues.

Leaders noted that these enhanced measures build on existing measures to slow the virus and save lives:

No non-essential gatherings of more than 500 people outside or more than 100 people inside
All non-essential indoor gatherings of less than 100 people must have no more than one person per 4sqm. All Australians should expect their local businesses to be following this rule
Where possible, keep 1.5 metres between yourself and others
Avoid non-essential travel
Restrictions on entering aged care homes to protect older Australians

The impact on clubs will be significant. As a result, we have compiled a list of available government assistance for clubs at this time.

Use the links below to skip to the relevant section:

Federal Government

Australian Taxation Office

Federal Government

The Government is providing up to $100,000 to eligible small and medium-sized businesses, and not for-profits (NFPs) that employ people, with a minimum payment of $20,000.

An additional payment is also being introduced in the July – October 2020 period. Eligible entities will receive an additional payment equal to the total of all of the Boosting Cash Flow for Employers payments they have received. This means that eligible entities will receive at least $20,000 up to a total of $100,000 under both payments.

More information: https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/businesses

Australian Taxation Office

On 12 March 2020, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) announced a series of administrative concessions to assist businesses impacted by COVID-19, which include:

deferring by up to 4 months the payment of tax amounts due through the BAS (including PAYG instalments), income tax assessments, FBT assessments and excise by affected businesses;
allowing affected businesses on a quarterly reporting cycle to opt into monthly GST reporting to get quicker access to any GST refunds;
allowing affected businesses to vary PAYG instalment amounts to zero for the April 2020 quarter. Businesses that vary their PAYG instalment to zero can also claim a refund for any instalments made for the September 2019 and December 2019 quarters;
remitting any interest and penalties, incurred by affected businesses on or after 23 January 2020, that have been applied to tax liabilities; and
allowing affected businesses to enter into low-interest payment plans for their existing and ongoing tax liabilities.

The ATO assistance is not automatic, taxpayers must first contact the ATO to request assistance, and if eligible, the ATO will ‘tailor the assistance package for the relevant taxpayer.

Support available for business

To assist businesses (including sole traders) experiencing financial difficulty as a result of COVID-19, the Australian Taxation Office are implementing relief options:

More information: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Dealing-with-disasters/In-detail/Specific-disasters/COVID-19/

ACT Government

The ACT Government is delivering a $137 million economic survival package to support the ACT community through the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures include:

$2,622 credit to commercial rates bill
$750 rebate to small businesses through their next electricity bill
Businesses that pay up to $10m in wages will be able to defer payroll tax for 12 months
Affected industries will receive a one-off six month waiver on payroll tax
Taxi and rideshare fees waived
Food and liquor licence fees waived
$20m fund for simple infrastructure works on public buildings
Funding for clubs to retain casual staff
Public sector staff in events or entertainment redeployed to maintenance works

More information: https://apps.treasury.act.gov.au/budget/covid-19-economic-survival-package/local-business-and-industry

NSW Government

Key elements of the NSW COVID-19 package include:

$450 million for the waiver of payroll tax for businesses with payrolls of up to $10 million for three months (the rest of 2019-20). This means these businesses will save a quarter of their annual payroll tax bill in 2019-20
$56 million to bring forward the next round of payroll tax cuts by raising the threshold limit to $1 million in 2020-21
$80 million to waive a range of fees and charges for small businesses including bars, cafes, restaurants and tradies
$250 million to employ additional cleaners of public infrastructure such as transport assets, schools and other public buildings
more than $250 million to bring forward maintenance on public assets including social housing and crown land fencing
$500 million to bring forward capital works and maintenance.

More information: https://preview.nsw.gov.au/news/health-boost-and-economic-stimulus

NT Government

Business Improvement Grant - $20 million

All Territory businesses will be able to access a $10,000 grant, followed by an additional $10,000 grant if they contribute $10,000 of their own.

Read more on the Business Improvement Grant.

Immediate Work Grant - $5 million

Grants of up to $100,000 will be given to not-for-profit and community organisations to engage local businesses to do repairs, renovations and upgrades to their property and facilities.

QLD Government

$500 million loan facility

A new Jobs Support $500 million loan facility, interest free for the first 12 months, has been created to support businesses to keep Queenslanders in work and will comprise loans of up to $250,000.

$500 million loan facility

Payroll tax deferment

All Queensland businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak can defer lodging and paying payroll tax until 31 July 2020.

The payroll tax relief package for Queensland businesses.

$27.25 million coronavirus industry recovery package

This package will assist local government, business and industry with resilience and recovery strategies. It includes targeted financial support and advice, promotion for Queensland, and counselling and support.

$27.25m package to provide immediate assistance

Support for small businesses

Support for small business factsheet (PDF 238KB)

More information: https://www.ditid.qld.gov.au/covid-19/business-support

SA Government

Information is available on financial assistance, eligibility and timing for the Australian Government’s support for businesses.

This includes:

cashflow assistance providing $25,000 back to small and medium-sized businesses, with a minimum payment of $2,000 or eligible businesses
increasing the instant asset write-off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000 and expanded access to include businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million)
Backing Business Investment (BBI) - a 15 month incentive to support business investment and economic growth over the short-term, by accelerating depreciation deductions
supporting apprentices and trainees through a wage subsidy if you employ and apprentice of trainee.

For more information, visit the Supporting Business in South Australia website.

TAS Government

The Tasmanian Liberal Government has prepared a $420 million stimulus package to support Tasmania as we tackle the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes:

Assistance for Small Businesses:

Interest Free Business Loans for Small Business
Payroll Tax Waivers
Government Maintenance Program
Improving Small Business Cash Flows

Tasmanian Support & Stimulus Package fact sheet: https://www.business.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/226377/Stimulus_Packages-Small_business_-_COVID-19_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Emergency COVID-19 online form - register your impact: https://k2.stategrowth.tas.gov.au/Runtime/Runtime/Form/EDC.FRM.EmergencyDataCollectionForm/

More information: https://www.business.tas.gov.au/

VIC Government

As part of a $1.7 billion economic survival package, the Victorian Government has announced $500 million to establish a Business Support Fund to assist small to medium businesses most impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

As part of the package, the Government will provide full payroll tax refunds for the 2019-20 financial year to small and medium-sized businesses with payroll of less than $3 million – giving $550 million back to businesses who need it.

The same businesses will also be able to defer any payroll tax for the first three months of the 2020/21 financial year until 1 January 2021, freeing up a further $83 million in cashflow.

More information: https://www.business.vic.gov.au/disputes-disasters-and-succession-planning/illness-and-business-management-plan/coronavirus-business-support

WA Government

The WA State Government announced a $607 million stimulus package to support WA households, pensioners and small businesses in the wake of COVID-19. The package includes:

a freeze will be placed on household fees and charges, including electricity, water, motor vehicle charges, the emergency services levy and public transport fares.
an allocation of $402 million in the 2020-21 Budget will go towards paying for the freeze.
$91 million allocated to double the Energy Assistance Package (EAP) in 2020-21 to provide additional support to vulnerable Western Australians. The payment will increase from $300 to $600 for eligible concession card-holders.
$114 million in measures to support Western Australian small and medium businesses.
payroll tax paying businesses with a payroll between $1 million and $4 million will receive a one-off grant of $17,500
$1 million payroll tax threshold brought forward by six months to July 1, 2020
small and medium sized businesses affected by COVID-19 can now apply to defer payment of their 2019-20 payroll tax until July 21, 2020

Please remember to refer to Australian Sailing’s COVID-19 information page for updates on the outbreak and its impact on sailing clubs, along with other valuable links and resources.

For further assistance, please contact your local Regional Manager. They will be able provide guidance to you, with insights from what other clubs and other sports are also doing. We will continue to update you as the situation evolves.

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