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  The Prime Minster today announced the $2.5bn JobTrainer package to retrain, upskill and open new job opportunities. The ABS labour force statistics were also released today revealing the unemployment rate has risen to 7.4% in June but with the participation rate increasing by 1.3%. Senator Michaelia Cash stated that “the Government remains acutely aware […]

The government is proposing to increase the university course costs for degrees in arts, business management, technology and law whilst decreasing the costs for teaching, nursing, sciences, engineering and medical. The object is to encourage more students into courses where there are career shortages. These cost changes could be substantial.

The initial maximum withdrawal of $10,000 finishes at 30 June, 2020. To qualify you must either be unemployed, eligible for job seeker (or other benefits) or after 1 January, 2020 been made redundant or your working hours have reduced by at least 20%. A sole trader also qualify if your business turnover is down by […]

Registration for the month of June 2020 commences 1 July, 2020 and must be completed online by 14 July, 2020 to qualify.

The HomeBuilder scheme targets the residential construction market by providing tax-free grants of $25,000 to eligible owner-occupiers, including first home buyers, to build a new home or substantially renovate their existing home. There are a few complexities to this grant that both home builders/renovators and the building industry need to be across before jumping in […]

A second round rolls out on 1 July, 2020. The grant is between $2,000 and $10,000. The aim of the grant is to prepare your business for a safe resumption of trading with an emphasis on creating or retaining employment. Funds can be used for professional advice, meeting ongoing business costs, strategic planning and business […]

To qualify for year ended 30 June, 2020 you must have the equipment (including cars) installed ready for use and paid for (or invoiced, if you use accruals) by 30 June, 2020. The measure has now been extended to 31 December, 2020 for half of next financial year. WARNING: the extended measure is not law […]

In a relatively short period of time, COVID-19 has changed many things – from the way we interact with each other to the way we do business. Whilst year end tax planning is always an important focus, a number of COVID-19 induced factors means that your year end tax planning for this financial year will […]

The ATO has denied any systemic issues around the processing of the cash-flow boost measure, noting that it only continues to interrogate claims in a “very small number of cases”. It is now understood that a recalibration of the ATO’s dataset over the past weekend should ensure the cash-flow boost payments are processed more smoothly, […]

A significant number of JobKeeper enrolment forms have been found to contain errors, slashing the cost of the program by almost half. An ATO review of the 910,055 businesses who have self-assessed as eligible under the JobKeeper scheme found that around 1000 made “significant errors” when reporting their estimates of eligible employees. “The most common […]