What can I do about my outgoings?

Electricity rebate

Cafes, restaurants and takeaways will receive a one-off rebate of $1,000 on electricity bills issued in the first quarter of 2020-21. Eligible businesses can apply online.

Water rebate

Hotels and serviced apartments will receive a rebate of the water and sewerage fixed charges on Icon Water bills for the first two quarters of 2020-21. Eligible businesses can apply online.

Food business registration, outdoor dining and liquor licensing fee waivers

On liquor licencees and Off licencees with gross liquor purchase value of $3 million or less in the last reporting year will receive a 12-month waiver of their annual food business registration and liquor licencing fees from 1 April 2020. Outdoor dining fees for 2020-2021 will also be waived.

The application fee for a general liquor licence will be waived for existing on licensees from 22 May 2020 until 31 December 2020.

Commercial liquor permits issued to allow takeaway sales during COVID-19 can now be extended to run up to a total of 12 months free of charge. These permits support restaurants and cafes to continue to offer takeaway and home delivery options.

If you hold an existing ON licence, you can also choose to move to a general liquor licence, free of charge until 31 December 2020 to provide an option to broaden your business model.

If food business registration has been prepaid for more than one year in advance, an additional 12 months will be added to the licence.

These waivers will be applied automatically as part of the normal annual fee licensing process.

Community clubs and the Canberra Casino

The government is supporting community clubs and Casino Canberra with measures such as:

• providing gaming machine licensees with the opportunity to access a payment of $15,000 per authorisation if they voluntarily surrender gaming machine authorisations
• a waiver/refund of gaming machine tax liabilities for clubs for March 2020 gaming activity (for clubs that pay tax monthly) or gaming activity in the first quarter of 2020 (for clubs eligible to pay tax quarterly)
• providing clubs with a rebate of fixed water and sewerage charges on Icon Water bills for the next two quarters
• application of the small business $750 electricity rebate to non-licenced sporting clubs and community clubs (with usage of less than 100 megawatt hours per annum on a business tariff with an electricity retailer). Eligible business can apply online.

Micro-producer application fee

Eligible micro-producers will receive a 90% reduction off their application fee in the first year of their off licence if they produce and sell up to $100,000 of liquor on their licenced premises.

To qualify for the initiative, you must:

• have not previously held an off licence
• conduct your business at your licensed premises and sell only the liquor you produce on the premises
• provide a written statement to the Fair Trading Commissioner that the estimated gross revenue from liquor you produce won’t be more than $100,000 during your reporting year.

Eligible businesses can apply online.

Rideshare, taxi and hire car fees

The Rideshare vehicle licence fee will be waived for 12 months for rideshare operators from 1 April 2020 as part of the normal licencing processes. If licences have already been prepaid 12 months in advance, an additional 12 months credit will be added to the licence at the next due date.

All government leased taxi plate fees will be waived, including wheelchair accessible taxis.

The $48.80 re-establishment fee for taxi service operators wanting to re-register their vehicles after cancelling their registration due to COVID-19 will be waived. The requirement for a roadworthy inspection will be waived for any taxis being re-registered, if the vehicle has undergone a roadworthy inspection in the past 9 months.

Hire car annual licence fee will be waived for 12 months. If hire car operators have paid for a 6-year licence, an additional 12 months credit will be added to their licence starting from the next due date.

All of these waivers will be automatically applied.

Infection control fees

The government has waived fees for 12 month for businesses that require an infection control licence such as beauty therapists, nail salons, tattoo parlours and dentists. This will automatically happen as part of the normal licencing process.

Electricity Rebate

Sole traders and small and medium businesses will get a $500 rebate on their power bill. Any business consuming less than 100,000 kilowatt hours will receive the rebate, which will be automatically applied on business electricity bills.

Licences and fees

The Queensland Government is providing Queensland tourism operators affected by COVID-19 with the following support:

• waiving of daily fees for commercial activity agreements and permits
• waiver and deferral of tourism lease rent payments
• waiving Great Barrier Reef Marine Park permit application assessment fees in some instances.

Licensing-related fees and charges

For licensing-related fees and charges, the following will apply until 31 March 2021:

• a fee, paid with the application, discounted by one year’s worth of the full fee, will be payable for any licences issued for more than one year; that is:
  • the fee payable for a five-year licence will be discounted by one fifth (20%);
  • the fee payable for a three-year licence will be discounted by one third (33%); 
  • the fee payable for a two-year licence will be discounted by one half (50%).
• one-year or annual licence fees and one-off transaction fees will be waived.

Business Vehicle Registration

Registration freeze for light and heavy vehicles

Small businesses looking to suspend activity due to the COVID-19 business downturn and trading restrictions can apply to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to freeze their business vehicle registrations for both light and heavy vehicles.

Registrations can be reactivated at no cost when the business restarts.

The maximum period that a registration can be frozen is 12 months.

Heavy vehicle registration and motor tax waivers

For heavy vehicles of over 4.5 tonnes the government will waive fees for registration and the road component of motor tax for 12 months.

Operators will still need to pay the regulatory component of motor tax which goes to fund the operations of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR).

How to apply

Significantly impacted business owners can apply for the registration freeze for light and heavy vehicles or the heavy vehicle registration and motor tax waivers through this form.

You will need to provide details on your business registered for tax purposes in Australia and your ABN.

If you are operating a heavy vehicle you will also need to and make a declaration that your business activities have been ceased or suspended.

Approval will be at the discretion of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles.

Application to unfreeze

It is the responsibility of the registered operator to make application to unfreeze the registration of their vehicle. Applications can be made through this form.

Licences and permit fees

The NSW Government is waiving a range of licence and permit fees for businesses for 12 months.

For most licences, when you make a new application or need to renew you will not be charged.

Relief period

The relief period is 12 months from:

• 1 April 2020 or
• 15 April 2020 or
• 20 April 2020

Eligible fees and licences

Liquor and Gaming NSW

Businesses like restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, hotels, bottle shops (with three or less outlets) and most other licensed venues will benefit from the following being waived:

• New liquor licence application fees and pro-rata liquor licence fees 
• Annual liquor licence base fees and trading hours risk loading fees.

Compliance risk loadings will not be waived, but deferred and included as part of 2021-2022 annual liquor licence fees.

NSW Fair Trading 

For 1 April:

• Paintball venue permit
• Tattoo parlour operator licence

From 15 April:

• Home building contractor licence
• Trade or specialist contractor licence
• Motor vehicle repairer specialist licence

From 20 April:

• Licence fee waivers for tattooists
• Home Building: Qualified Supervisor Certificates
• Home Building: Tradesperson Certificates
• Motor Vehicle Tradesperson Certificates

SafeWork NSW

From 1 April:

• Pyrotechnician licence
• Registration permit of amusement device

From 15 April:

• Asbestos removal licences and asbestos assessor licence
• Demolition licence
• High risk work licence

From 20 April:

• High Risk Work Assessor Accreditation
• SafeWork Registered Training Organisations (for asbestos, construction and high risk work training) – new applications only

SafeWork NSW licences, permits and application processes

• Pyrotechnicians licence
• Plant licences
• Asbestos licensing
• Demolition licensing
• High risk work
• Registered training organisations (RTOs)

Find out more

Business Hardship Package

The Business Hardship Package is available to NT businesses with a turnover less than $50 million who can demonstrate a reduction of turnover of 30% or more due to COVID-19.

Once approved for the hardship register, businesses will receive a business hardship certificate that they can use to access relevant concessions such as payroll tax, utilities, rents and rates.

The Business Hardship Package is available until 1 July 2021.

Eligible businesses can apply online.

Businesses and business groups with Australian (annualised grouped) wages up to $4 million will receive a payroll tax waiver for the months of April to June 2021 (for the return periods of March 2020 to May 2021).

Businesses and business groups with wages over $4 million whose employees qualify for JobKeeper support payments between 4 January 2021 and 28 March 2021 will receive a waiver of the payroll tax payable on other wages paid for the months of January to June 2021 (for the return periods of December 2020 to May 2021).

Find out more

Payroll tax rebate – Trainees and apprentices, and youth employees

Rebates are available for employers who pay payroll tax and commence employment of:

• Youth employees (aged 15 and 24 years) between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2022
• Apprentices and/or trainees in the building, construction, tourism, hospitality and manufacturing industries between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2022.
• Apprentice and/or trainees employed in other industries between 1 January 2021 and 30 June 2022.

Rebates are available for the following periods:

• Youth employees: one (1) year from the date the youth employee commenced employment
• Apprentices and trainees: two (2) years from the day that the employee’s training contract takes effect under the Training and Workforce Development Act 2013.

To receive payment of the rebate, employers must:

• have lodged their returns and paid their payroll tax by the due date to be eligible for the rebate for the same period
• comply with all legislative requirements of the Payroll Tax Act 2008 and the Payroll Tax Rebate (Apprentices, Trainees and Youth Employees) Act 2017
• provide any information requested by the Commissioner of State Revenue and cooperate with any compliance checks made by the State Revenue Office (SRO) within the time permitted, and/or repay any rebate payment received when demanded
• not be the subject of any incomplete investigations in relation to payroll tax
• not have any unpaid payroll tax liabilities.

To register for either rebate, eligible businesses need to complete the registration form.

Find out more

Deferring 2020-21 payroll tax liabilities

Employers with payrolls up to $10 million, based on your 2019-20 financial year annual reconciliation returns, can defer your 2020-21 payroll tax liabilities until the 2021-22 financial year.

This means they can pay your 2020-21 payroll tax liabilities in four quarterly instalments in the 2021-22 financial year:

• Liabilities for July, August and September 2020 will be due on 7 September 2021
• Liabilities for October, November and December 2020 will be due on 7 December 2021
• Liabilities for January, February and March 2021 will be due on 7 March 2022
• Liabilities for April, May and June 2021 will be due on 7 June 2022.

To be eligible for this deferral measure, an employer must lodge:

• 2019-20 financial year annual reconciliation return, and
• monthly payroll tax returns for the months of July 2020 through to June 2021.

Waiving of 2020-21 and 2021-22 payroll tax

Eligible employers will be entitled to a waiver of their 2020-21 and 2021-22 payroll tax after applying the New Jobs payroll tax credit against their liability for each of the financial years (designated financial year).

Eligible employers will receive a credit of 10 cents for every dollar of Victorian taxable wages paid in the relevant designated financial year that are above the previous financial year’s wages. The credit will be applied against the employer’s payroll tax liabilities at the end of the relevant designated financial year. The waiver may partially or fully extinguish the payroll tax liability for an eligible employer for the designated year.

An employer or a group of employers is eligible for the relief if their total Australian wages do not exceed $10 million in the financial year preceding the designated financial year. There are other eligibility requirements which must be met and this will depend on whether or not the employer is a member of a payroll tax group as at 30 June of the relevant designated financial year.

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Deferral - all businesses

Businesses that pay less than $10 million in wages can defer 2020-21 payroll tax, interest free until 1 July 2022. Businesses will need to complete a simple online application form to confirm eligibility.

Payroll tax exemption of JobKeeper payments and new apprentice or trainee wages

Wages paid to apprentices or trainees employed after 1 August 2020 are exempt from payroll tax for the period from the start of the employment until 30 June 2021. To ensure this applies only to new employees, the apprentice or trainee cannot have been employed by the business (or another business within the payroll tax group) at any time during the previous month from when the employment commenced.

Payroll tax exemption - Businesses unable to trade

The exemption applies to wages paid or payable by eligible employers for a specified period – any of the months in the period 1 December 2020 to 30 June 2021.

If at any time during one of the specified months, the employer’s business is unable to trade they will be exempt from payroll tax on wages for that month.

Payroll tax waiver - businesses able to operate only on a very limited basis

Businesses that are able to operate, but only on a very limited basis, as a consequence of an emergency direction in force may be eligible for a payroll tax waiver from January to July 2021, for wages paid or payable between 1 December 2020 and 30 June 2021.

Submissions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and will need to demonstrate that business operations are severely restricted by a specific emergency direction. A business will not be eligible just because it has reduced capacity due to a maximum person limit per usable space or because customers are required to remain seated.

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Deferrals

Payroll tax deferrals are available for registered employers until 21 July 2021 with:

• confirmed listing on the DTBI Business Hardship Register
• total Australian taxable wages for 2019-20 of over $7.5 million
• a reduction in turnover of at least 50% due to COVID-19 when compared to the corresponding month or quarter in 2019.

Eligible employers may be able to defer payment of one or more monthly returns between March 2020 and June 2021 until 21 July 2021, provided returns continue to be lodged by the due date.

Waivers

Payroll tax waivers are available for the March 2020 to June 2021 return periods for employers with a confirmed listing on the DTBI Business Hardship Register and total Australian taxable wages for 2019-20 of under $7.5 million.

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