The 2020 financial year is almost done; what a rollercoaster of a year it has been.

A lot of businesses, individuals and financial markets were ticking along nicely for the first half of the year. And then it happened, a global pandemic sweeps across the globes, stopping everything in its tracks.

At the time of writing:

• There are over 9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide.
• Almost 500,000 deaths caused by COVID-19 worldwide.
• Over 30% monthly decline across global financial markets.
• A spike in global unemployment.
• Entire economies are brought to a stand-still.
• Government orders us to stay at home and work from home.
• Social distancing measures are in place.

Everyone has felt the pain and stress of the last four months in some shape or form, be it financially, emotionally or physically.

As a local business, not only have we have felt the suffering of what the last four months has thrown at us firsthand, but we have also seen the financial impact on some of local businesses to whom we provide professional advice.

The way we have conducted our lives and, more importantly, how we will operate going forward due to the ever-changing restrictions, will become the new norm.

Who would have thought we would be conducting our business via webinars, meeting with clients over zoom and working from home full-time. I must admit, I am much more tech savvy now than I was four months ago.

No one can predict when the government subsidiaries will be turned off and what our economy and business will look like in the future. So as we move forward, we will be faced with more interesting and challenging times.

I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of the incentives that the Australian Government has put together to help businesses and individuals through this tough period.

The schemes currently in place are:

• JobKeeper Scheme – financial assistance to businesses to assist in keeping employees on the payroll. This is due to expire at the end of September. For more details on this, please see this article.
• PAYG Cash Flow Boost – recognised as a credit upon lodgement of a business’s Business Activity Statement, for those businesses that employ staff. This is due to expire upon the lodgement of your September BAS.
• Instant Asset Write Off - the instant asset write-off threshold has been increased from $30,000 to $150,000 (for businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $500 million) until 31 December 2020.
• Wage Subsidies to Support the Retention of Apprentices & Trainees – employers with less than 20 full-time employees may be eligible to receive a 50% subsidy to help cover an apprentice or trainee’s wage for up to 9 months from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020.

If you are unsure of your eligibility for any of the above listed incentives, please speak to your trusted Ashfords advisor.

I would like to thank all of our staff and clients for supporting us through this extraordinary time.

Hopefully the 2021 financial year will see us out of this difficult period and will provide some much-needed recovery and respite for all.

Please stay safe.