August government support (Victoria)

Melbourne is back in lockdown, so we thought we’d put up an update of what is available for support:

COVID-19 Disaster Payments

(To apply for this, you must to do so in your MyGov account)

Eligible workers across the state who lose hours due to the lockdown will be eligible for support through the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 Disaster Payment, as will businesses that do not qualify for Victorian Government support programs because they are not registered for GST or do not meet the industry criteria.

Business Costs Assistance Program

This will be paid automatically to those eligible for the BCAP3
(Lockdown 4 & 5 state government grants)

Under the new State-Commonwealth business support package confirmed today, more than 90,000 businesses will be automatically paid a Business Costs Assistance Program Round Three grant of $2,800.

(Note, you must have qualified for the previous Business Costs Assistance Program from the last lockdown but there will be an opportunity for those who didn’t apply to register).

Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund

(This will be paid automatically to those who received the last round of grants)

New payments of $5,000 to $20,000 will be made to more than 8,900 hospitality venues across Victoria that received funding support from the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund through the May/June and July lockdowns. Payments will be automatic and graded by venue capacity.

Alpine Business Support Program

(This will be paid automatically to those who received the last round of grants.)

Alpine businesses will receive between $5,000 (off-mountain) and $20,000 (employing businesses, on mountain) under a $10.6 million extension of the Alpine Business Support Program.

Small Business COVID Hardship Fund

Rent relief for businesses

(Tenants are encouraged to talk directly to their landlords)

From 28 July, commercial landlords must provide rental relief to eligible tenants that matches the tenants’ COVID-19 impacted decline in turnover under the reintroduced Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme.

To be eligible for relief, commercial tenants must have an annual turnover of less than $50 million and have suffered a decline in turnover of at least 30% as a result of COVID-19.

Where an agreement cannot be reached between the tenants and landlord, the parties are encouraged to enter negotiations directly, with the Victorian Small Business Commission (VSBC) available to provide mediation if required.

Full details are not yet available, however more information will be posted to both the VSBC and our webpage on the topic.

*update* 

You have until 30 September 2021 to apply to your landlord if you are eligible for rent relief from 28 July 2021.
We do not want you to miss this deadline.

Any applications after this date will not receive any rent relief for prior to the application.

Landlord Hardship Fund

To help landlords that are doing the right thing by eligible tenants, the Government will provide land tax relief of up to 25 per cent, in addition to any previous relief.

Also, Small landlords who can show acute hardship will be eligible to apply for payments as part of a $20 million hardship fund, at this stage we have no idea what this relief will look like.

*update*

Details on this have been released and can be found here.

Summary

All of these government grants can be a bit confusing to remember, so we’ve summarised them for you below.

You already knew the news that would affect your business

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