The QLD Government has introduced additional support grants for eligible businesses who have been impacted by the August 2021 COVID-19 lockdowns. These grants range from $10,000 to $30,000 depending on the size of the business. The grants can be used for business expenses. See below for further details on the Business Support Grant.
$10,000 Grant: available to eligible employing small business and not-for-profit organisations with an annual payroll in QLD of less than $1.3M.
$15,000 Grant: available to eligible employing medium sized businesses and not-for-profit organisations with an annual payroll in QLD between $1.3M and $10M.
$30,000 Grant: available to eligible employing large sized tourism and hospitality focused businesses and not-for-profit organisations with an annual payroll in QLD of greater than $10M.
Non-Employing Sole Traders: eligible non-employing sole traders across QLD can receive a one-off $1,000 grant. If you are a Queensland-based non-employing sole trader who has had a decline in turnover of more than 30% due to the South East Queensland lockdown commencing 31 July 2021 or the Cairns and Yarrabah lockdown commencing 8 August 2021, you may be eligible for a one-off $1,000 grant.
For the grants ranging between $10,000 and $30,000, to be eligible you will need to meet the following:
Application open midday 16 August 2021 and can me made via the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) portal.
There are various supporting documents that may need to be provided in your application, including:
Eligible hospitality or tourism businesses may be eligible for rebate, fee and payroll tax relief measures under the $47.75 million tourism and hospitality sector COVID-19 lockdown support package. This relief will provide immediate support if you're impacted by the recent COVID-19 lockdowns in South East Queensland or Cairns.
Eligible tourism and hospitality businesses that lodge payroll tax returns monthly can apply to defer paying their payroll tax liability due in August 2021 for 6 months. If they have already paid the liability due in August, they can apply to defer their next month's payroll tax liability.
To qualify for the 2021 deferral, your business must:
Rent deferral is available for eligible tourism operators on state land for the period 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022. Payment of rent for this period will now be due on 1 July 2022.
Rent for eligible tourism lessees, licensees and permit holders that is payable for the period 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 has been automatically deferred for payment until 1 July 2022. No further action is required.
Tourism businesses that operate in a national park, conservation park, recreation area or state forest, including whale watching operations, may have fees waived or refunded where those fees have (or will have) been incurred from tourism activities occurring between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022.
The Department of Environment and Science will be working with tourism operators that have a commercial activity agreement or permit on Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service managed areas and will contact individual operators to provide information about this support and how it can be accessed.
The government has identified that ITOs may benefit from renewal application fees being waived (or where paid, refunded) to mitigate the impact this may have on their business.
To support this, we are waiving the registration fee for a 12-month period for ITO renewal applications lodged before 30 June 2022.
This support is available for offsetting the berthing fees for marine tourism vessel operators at privately owned or privately operated marinas in eligible local government areas between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022.
The Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation will be waiving licence fees for the 2021–22 licence period for operators who were licensed under the Liquor Act 1992 or the Wine Industry Act 1994 as at 30 June 2021. If you have already paid your licence fees for the 2021–22 period, these will be refunded. Licensees that have not paid are no longer required to pay their fees. Application fees associated with changes to trading hours or licensed areas will also be waived between now and 30 June 2022.
The Queensland COVID-19 cleaning rebate supports small and medium businesses and not-for-profit organisations that have been listed as an exposure site by Queensland Health. It will help cover professional cleaning expenses by providing a rebate of up to 80% of cleaning costs, capped at $10,000 (excluding GST) per incident, where a business is identified as a COVID-19 exposure site by Queensland Health.
Small and medium businesses and not-for-profit organisations can access a rebate after:
This rebate applies to businesses that undertake an eligible professional clean in the 2021–22 financial year—this includes businesses that may have undertaken cleaning aligned to the South East Queensland and Townsville lockdown that commenced on 29 June 2021.
To be eligible, businesses (including sole traders) need to have a Queensland based business premises (i.e. principal place of business is located in Queensland) and an annual payroll in Queensland of not more than $10 million.
Applications can be made via Business Queensland’s website once applications have opened.
The above details are taken from the information available on Business Queensland’s website as at 17 August 2021. As details are continually being updated in response to the on-going impact of COVID-19, we recommend you continue to check the government website to ensure you are kept up to date with the current information available.
If you require assistance in determining your eligibility, assistance with the application process or an Accountant’s Letter, our team at BLG Business Advisers are Wollongong Accountants and are here to help so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
We wish you and your business every success!