The measures announced on Sunday mean the fiscal impact before June 30 has risen from $10.95bn to $25.78bn and from $6.58bn to $36.26bn in 2020/21. Looking further into the measures;
Households/individuals
Households/individuals
- Income support for individuals: A new measure; existing and new recipients of the Job Seeker Payment, Youth Allowance Jobseeker, Parenting Payment, Farm Household Allowance and Special Benefit will be eligible for a fortnightly supplement of $550. (2019/20 impact: $5.22bn)
- Payments to support households: Extending on a previously announced measure, income support recipients will now receive a second payment of $750. The first will flow from 31 March and the second from 13 July. (2019/20 impact: $4.88bn).
- Temporary release of superannuation: A new measure; impacted workers will be permitted early access to superannuation on a tax-free basis on amounts up to $10,000 in 2019/20 and another $10,000 in 2020/21. (2019/20 impact: $0.02bn)
- Lower the social security deeming rates: Extending on an earlier announcement, the deeming rate has been cut by a further 0.25ppt at the upper (2.25%) and lower (0.25%) bands. (2019/20 impact: $0.035bn)
Businesses
- Boosting cash flow for employers: Expansion of an earlier measure; offers small and medium-sized businesses (annual turnover < $50mn and employ workers) an effective refund of tax withheld. Previously, firms were entitled to a 50% refund between a minimum of $2,000 and a maximum of $25,000, which has now been raised to a 100% refund between a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $50,000. Between July and October, firms will then be entitled to an additional payment equal to that already received under this measure, meaning that the minimum payment over the 2020 year is $20,000 to a maximum of $100,000. (2019/20 impact: $14.9bn)
- Increasing instant asset write-offs: Expansion of an earlier measure; threshold has been lifted from $30,000 to $150,000 and is available to firms with an annual turnover of up to $500mn. (2020/21 impact: $2.3bn).
- Support for Australian airlines and airports: Providing tax relief for the airline industry. (2019/20 impact: $0.437bn).
- The backing business investment, supporting trainees and apprentices and support for coronavirus affected regions measures were unchanged from previous announcements.
When including the measures announced last week by the RBA ($90bn Term Funding Facility), Treasury ($15bn injection through AOFM into wholesale funding markets) and the government (providing up to a total of $20bn in loan guarantees to banks for lending to small and medium-sized enterprises), the value of the package rises to $188.8bn (9.7% of annual GDP).
