How we’re available during Lockdown
Plus the various Govt support options.
During Level 4 (and 3) lockdowns in NZ, our office is required to be closed and all staff to work remotely. Since we’ve done this before our team is set up to work remotely and be available to their clients as required. You can continue to contact us via email or our work mobile numbers as usual. Please be advised that we will be working flexi-hours to accommodate everything else that comes with working from home, so our usual working hours may differ slightly to when we were in the office. Your bookkeeper / accounts manager will let you know of any major changes to their working. Rest assured, we are well equipped to continue with your usual workflow and processes that we have in place.
The NZ government have a range of financial support options available to business owners:
The Wage Subsidy:
The Wage Subsidy August 2021 payments support employers to continue to pay employees and protect jobs for businesses affected by Alert Levels 3 and 4.
There are two COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021 payments. The previous two-week COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021, which opened on 20 August 2021, has closed.
Applications for the second COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021, known as Wage Subsidy August 2021 #2, are open for two weeks between 9am 3 September 2021 and 11.59pm Thursday 16 September 2021.
You can apply for the wage subsidy through Work and Income.
Resurgence Support Payment:
The COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment helps to cover wages and fixed costs for businesses who have been directly affected when there is an increase to Alert Level 2 or higher for a week or more.
To be eligible, your business must have experienced at least a 30% drop in revenue or a 30% decline in capital-raising ability over a 7-day period, due to an increase in Alert Levels.
- You can receive $1,500 per business plus $400 per full-time employee (FTE), up to 50 FTE.
- The maximum payment is $21,500.
- If you’re a sole trader, you can receive a payment of up to $1,900.
Businesses anywhere in New Zealand can apply if they meet the eligibility criteria.
You can apply for both the COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment and the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme if you meet all the eligible criteria.
You can apply for the RSP through the IRD.
Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme:
If you employ 50 or fewer staff, you may be able to apply for the Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme. This is a one-off 5 year loan. You can borrow a maximum of $10,000 plus $1,800 per full-time-equivalent employee within your business.
- When applying for the loan, you need to be able to declare that your business is viable.
- Your business must have experienced a minimum 30% decline in actual or predicted revenue over the period of a month, compared with the same month last year.
- Applications are open until 31 December 2023 through myIR. If your business does not have a myIR account, you will need to create one to apply.
Loans will be interest free if they are paid back within 2 years. The interest rate is 3% for a maximum term of 5 years.
You can apply for this loan through the IRD.
Tax Obligations:
If you are finding it hard to meet your tax obligations, IRD may be able to help. More information on this can be found here.
A full recap of the support available can be found on the Covid-19 website.
If you need to discuss your situation with us in confidence please do not hesitate to give us a call. We do endeavour to contact each of our clients at the beginning of each lockdown so we can help with a plan if need be.
