This resource provides a summary of the support that may be accessible to the baseball community over the coming months via various government agencies.
The information provided may not be exhaustive but is current as of the date of publication (27 March 2020).
- For up-to-date information from the Department of Health and Human Services and Victorian State Government, click HERE.
- For up-to-date information from VicHealth, click HERE.
- For updates from Vicsport, click HERE.
- Baseball Victoria’s information and updates are located HERE.
FOR CLUBS & ASSOCIATIONS – NATIONALLY
Cash for clubs who employ staff
- Eligibility:
- employ staff and withhold tax on wages
- businesses with a turnover of less than $50M – includes Not-For-Profits
- active employers prior to March 12.
- Businesses can receive two payments of a minimum of $10,000 and a maximum of $50,000 from April 28.
- More details can be found on the Australian Treasury website HERE.
- Included in the above fact sheet are details about how apprentices (such as apprentice greenkeepers) can get a 50% wage subsidy for nine months, up to $21,000 in total.
Temporary relief for financially distressed businesses
- There is a temporary increase in the threshold (from $2,000 to $20,000) at which creditors can issue a statutory demand on a business and the time companies have to respond to statutory demands they receive (from 21 days to six months).
- There is temporary relief for directors from any personal liability for businesses trading while insolvent – this will apply for six months.
- More details can be found HERE.
Loan guarantee scheme & relaxation of lending
- Eligibility:
- Businesses with a turnover of less than $50M – includes Not-For-Profits.
- The government will provide a guarantee of 50% for new unsecured loans to be used for working capital.
- Loans of up to $250,000 for up to three years, with a pause on repayments for six months – to commence by early April.
- More details from the Australian Treasury can be found HERE.
- The Government is also providing an exemption from responsible lending obligations for lenders providing credit to existing small business customers. This exemption is for six months, and applies to any credit for business purposes, including new credit, credit limit increases and credit variations and restructures.
AGMs may be postponed - situations vary between state/territory jurisdictions and will depend on the incorporation of the business
- Where Clubs/Associations are registered as Companies, ASIC has determined that AGMs can be postponed for two months where AGMs due to be held by May 31, 2020.
- It is expected that ASIC will provide further updates for businesses with March, April, May or June year end dates in coming months.
- More details can be found HERE.
- Where Clubs/Associations are incorporated as Associations, the rules with respect to AGMs are determined by the relevant state/territory trading or consumer affairs department:
- VIC - Consumer Affairs Victoria - Associations can apply for an extension of time if it cannot hold its AGM within five months after the end of its financial year. This is done by lodging a form which can be found HERE.
- Clubs/Associations may also choose to run their AGMs remotely via the use of technology if their Constitution allows – Not-For-Profit Law are conducting a webinar surrounding the idea of postponing or remotely holding an AGM . Please click HERE.
FOR EMPLOYEES & PARTICIPANTS – NATIONALLY
Payments to support households
- The Government is providing two separate $750 payments to social security, veteran, other income support recipients (including those who receive Family Tax Benefits) and eligible concession card holders. The first payment will be made from 31 March 2020 and the second payment will be made from 13 July 2020. Around half of those who benefit are pensioners.
- More details can be found on the Australian Treasury website HERE.
Income support for individuals
- For new and existing recipients of JobSeeker Payments (which replaced Newstart Allowance and a number of other payments from 20 March 2020), Parenting Payment, Youth Allowance for jobseekers, Youth Allowance for students, Austudy, Abstudy, Farm Household Allowance, and Special Benefit. The supplement will be paid for six months and almost doubles the maximum payment rate for a JobSeeker Payment recipient.
- A $550 per fortnight payment will commence on 27 April 2020 and continue for six months.
- More details can be found on the Australian Treasury website HERE.
Early access to superannuation
- Eligibility – if after 1 January 2020:
- you were made redundant; or
- your working hours were reduced by 20 per cent or more; or
- if you are a sole trader — your business was suspended or there was a reduction in your turnover of 20 per cent or more.
- Eligible individuals will be able to apply to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation before July 1, 2020. They will also be able to access up to a further $10,000 from July 2, 2020 for approximately three months
- More details can be found HERE.
Temporarily reducing minimum superannuation drawdowns and social security deeming rates
- There are temporary reductions on superannuation minimum drawdown requirements for account-based pensions and similar products by 50% for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 income years.
- The Government is also reducing both the upper and lower social security deeming rates by a further 0.25 percentage points in addition to the 0.5 percentage point reduction to both rates announced on 12 March 2020.
- More details can be found on the Australian Treasury website HERE.
FOR CLUBS & ASSOCIATIONS – VICTORIA
Payroll tax waived
Businesses with annual taxable wages up to $3M will have their payroll tax for the 2019-2020 financial year waived. Eligible businesses must continue to lodge returns but do not need to make further payments for this financial year. Businesses will also be eligible to defer any payroll tax liability for the first three months of the 2020-21 financial year until 1 January 2021.
Liquor licence fees waived
Businesses that have paid for a renewable liquor licence for 2020 will be reimbursed their licence fee and those yet to pay will have the fee waived.
Land tax deferral
Land-owners due to pay 2020 land tax that have at least one non-residential property and total taxable landholdings below $1M have the option of deferring their 2020 land tax payment until after 31 December 2020.
Business Support Fund
$500 million has been announced to support “hard hit” sectors including hospitality, tourism, accommodation, arts and entertainment, and retail. More details to follow.
Please note that all of the advice is current as at 27 March 2020 and economic support packages from all levels of governments are expected to be expanded over the coming weeks and months.
The information on this website is presented by Baseball Victoria for the purpose of improving our members access to information related to COVID-19.
Baseball Victoria monitors the quality of the information available on this website and updates the information regularly. However, Baseball Victoria does not make any representation or warranty about the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this website or on any linked site.