To help your business navigate through these extremely difficult times, the Government has provided some financial assistance with their recently announced ‘Business Resilience Package’. Due to the Victorian Government’s Stage 3 & Stage 4 Restrictions put in place to combat the Corona Virus, businesses have had to adapt and operate in a limited capacity or, in some instances, have had to completely close up shop.

1. Personal income tax changes

1.1 Changes to personal income tax rates

The Government has announced that it will bring forward changes to the personal income tax rates that were due to apply from 1 July 2022, so that these changes now apply from 1 July 2020 (i.e. from the 2021 income year). These changes involve:-

• increasing the upper threshold of the 19% personal income tax bracket from $37,000 to $45,000; and
• increasing the upper threshold of the 32.5% personal income tax bracket from $90,000 to $120,000

The corona virus pandemic has, and continues to have, a significant impact on Victoria from both a health and economic perspective. The State Revenue Office has summarised the corona virus tax and fee relief measures that they are administering below:-

The JobKeeper Payment is a scheme, administered by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), aimed at supporting businesses and not-for-profit organisations significantly affected by COVID-19, to help keep more Australians in jobs.

Whilst it was originally due to run until 27 September 2020, it will now continue to be available to eligible businesses (including the self-employed) and not-for-profits until 28 March 2021.