Business cash grants and income support announced for SA COVID-19 restrictions

In response to the latest state-wide COVID-19 restrictions and density limits, the South Australian Government has announced a $40 million business support package, offering eligible tourism, hospitality and fitness-related businesses an automatic cash grant of up to $11,000, while grants of up to $8,000 will also be available for other eligible businesses that experienced a 50 per cent reduction in turnover from December 27 2021.

Business support

Tourism, hospitality and gym grant

Automatic Payment: Eligible local tourism, hospitality and fitness-related businesses will be paid up to $11,000 in automatic cash grants to support them in managing the impacts of the latest state-wide COVID-19 restrictions and density limits.

Turnover based payment: A second cash grant of up to $12,000 is also available on application; however, to receive the payment, you will need to demonstrate that you have experienced a 30% reduction in turnover in the two weeks starting from 27 December 2021. A business does not need to have received the automatic payment to then be eligible for this grant.

Non-employing businesses (eg; sole traders) not operating in the CBD are also eligible for $1,000 automatic and turnover-based payments, while those operating in the CBD can access automatic and turnover-based payments of $2,000.

The full eligibility criteria for the tourism, hospitality and gym grant (turnover based payment) dictates that a business must, as at 12:01am Monday 27 December 2021:

• Be located within South Australia
• Be registered for GST
• Employ people in South Australia
• Have a valid Australian Business Number (ABN)
• Have an Australia-wide grouped payroll of less than $10 million in the 2019-20 or 2020-21 financial year
• Experienced at least a 30% reduction in turnover (compared to the two weeks prior) due to the restricted trading conditions
• Not be engaged in illegal activities

To be eligible for the tourism, hospitality and gym grant for sole traders, a business must meet the criteria listed above excluding the requirement to employ people.

To register for the payments, businesses should submit their application through the Revenue SA website.

Business hardship grant

Grants of up to $8,000 are also available to other eligible businesses that experienced a 50% reduction in turnover in the two weeks starting from December 27, 2021.

Eligible employing businesses will be provided with a once-off $6,000 grant, with a further grant of $2,000 available for eligible businesses operating from a commercial premise located in the CBD.

Non-employing businesses will be provided with a once-off $2,000 grant, with a further $2,000 available for eligible businesses operating in the CBD.

The full eligibility criteria for the business hardship grant dictates that a business must, as at 12:01am Monday 27 December 2021:

• Be located within South Australia
• Be registered for GST
• Employ people in South Australia
• Have a valid Australian Business Number (ABN)
• Have an Australia-wide grouped payroll of less than $10 million in the 2019-20 or 2020-21 financial year
• Experienced at least a 50% reduction in turnover (compared to the two weeks prior) due to the restricted trading conditions
• Not be engaged in illegal activities

To be eligible for the business hardship grant for sole traders, a business must meet the criteria listed above excluding the requirement to employ people.

To register for the payments, businesses should submit their application through the Revenue SA website.

Major events grant

A grant of up to $100,000 will be available to organisers for major events that were forced to be either cancelled or postponed between 27 December 2021 and 27 January 2022.

Operators of eligible events with more than 1,000 expected attendees will be provided with a once-off grant of up to $25,000 to support them in these difficult circumstances.

A grant of up to $100,000 is available in respect of larger eligible events with expected attendance of more than 10,000.

To register for these payments, businesses should email businessgrants@sa.gov.au.

For more information on support packages for businesses impacted by the latest COVID-19 restrictions, please visit the SA Treasury website.

Details on previous SA cash grants under the COVID-19 Support Fund can be found here.