I am sure you are aware of what government support is available to assist your business if it is financially impacted by Covid-19.  With the recent change of restrictions - moving the country into alert level Level 2 and Auckland into Level 3 - you may be able to re-assess your situation and access support that you couldn't in the past, or extend the support offered.  In this newsletter I highlight links to sites (within the headings) that may be useful for you. In particular discussing:
• Wage subsidy extension
• Small business loan extension
• Leave Support scheme
• Mortgage Deferral scheme

Wage Subsidy Extension

Level 3 prompts extension of Wage Subsidy. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has confirmed that the wage subsidy scheme will be further extended nationwide for the period that Auckland is at COVID-19 Alert Level 3. The criteria for the latest extension to the wage subsidy extension are:
• a business must have had, or is predicting to have, a revenue drop due to COVID-19 of at least 40%, and
• the revenue drop applies for any consecutive period of at least 14 days within 12 August 2020 and 10 September 2020 compared to last year.
Applications for the latest extension of the wage subsidy scheme will be open by the end of this week.

Small Business Loan extension
NZ Government will provide interest free loans for a year to small business impacted by the COVID-19 economic shock - to support cashflow needs and fixed costs.
Applications are open through your company myIR. Go to the 'I want to' section, and select 'Apply for the small business loan.' If your businesses doesn't have a myIR account, you will need to create one to apply.

Keep in mind you can only apply once and can't change your application once submitted.

Leave Support scheme
This scheme is available for employees to pay their employees who can't work under the current criteria and health and safety measures. This scheme used to be available only to essential employers but now it's available for all employers who meet the criteria.

Mortgage Deferral scheme
The mortgage deferral scheme is also being extended from its current end date of 27 September 2020, to 31 March 2021, with further details to be made available by the Reserve Bank and the retail banks.

I encourage you to gather your information from official sources. The Business.Govt.NZ website  has good information that may assist you with the current business climate, including rules and obligations about Operating your Business at Different Covid Alert Levels: Health and Safety requirements, staff movements and customer restrictions, among other topics.  Contact Tracing information is also available on this site: From 12pm on Wednesday 19 August all business and services providers are required to display the official NZ Covid Tracker QR poster prominently.

Tax Obligations and Assistance
If you are having difficulties meeting your tax obligations, please contact IRD to discuss support schemes and options that may be available to you. Note provisional tax notices have recently been sent out (due 28 August).

If you need to discuss anything with regards to your financial position you are welcome to call Luke directly Ph 021 432 436 or Luke@flashpointaccounting.co.nz.         

With best wishes,            

Luke Canton, Helen Canton, Veronica Griffin & Philippa Muller
Flashpoint Accounting Ltd
www.flashpointaccounting.co.nz