COVID-19 – Assistance and Support for Businesses

Current at 31 March 2020

As of 30 March 2020, during a period of less than three weeks, the Federal Government has announced in three tranches, economic stimulus and relief measures with a total value of support for the economy of $320 Billion.  These measures represent 16.4% of annual GDP.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread worldwide, the full impacts of the virus are yet to be seen and the outlook on the effect the virus will have on world economies has continued to worsen and deteriorate as time goes on.    This of course is in addition to the global death toll, breakdown of health care systems unable to cope with the number of cases and the deeper impacts all of this will have on society and our way of life both now as we enter lock downs and beyond into recovery.

Most experts agree that Australia’s economy is headed for the deepest recession we have seen in 90 years, since that of The Great Depression.  The overwhelming majority of us, weren’t around at that time and aside from perhaps having had relatives recount stories from those times, we are entering a period like nothing we have encountered before.

To combat the impact and give support to those affected, the Government support measures target three areas:

• Individuals and Households

• Business

• Flow of Credit

In this article we will cover the key measures business owners need to be aware of and importantly the how - how to seek support when needed.