The budget covers health, education, tourism, infrastructure, the environment, housing and public order. The impact of the pandemic on the Victorian economy has been significant, with Victoria’s state final demand falling by 8.5% in the June quarter. The budget is designed to create 400,000 jobs over the next 5 years.
We have summarised below the components of the budget that we thought the business owners of Prime clients will be interested in knowing more about.
The full budget summary is availablehere.
The Jobs Plan includes an allocation of $836 million in payroll tax relief to encourage employees to hire new workers, called the New Jobs Tax Credit. The new jobs tax credit will be available to small and medium enterprises to increase employment by re-hiring staff, restoring staff hours or supporting new jobs. For the next two years, eligible businesses will receive a tax credit of 10 cents for every dollar of Victorian taxable wages above the previous year’s.
This means that not only will eligible businesses pay no payroll tax on these increased wages – they will get a refund of tax already paid. The more they increase wages and employment in Victoria, the less payroll tax they will pay.
This includes funding for pilot virtual trade missions, establishing a Freight Stabilisation Fund and Global Gateway vouchers to assist exporters identify new export markets.
Cash grants to support small and medium sized businesses. This includes:
The Breakthrough Fund will be allocated $2 billion to help support research and development adoption and commercialisation, supporting 15 700 jobs over 10 years. This investment will focus on priority industries, including medical research, health and life sciences, agri food, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and digital technologies. A long term investment strategy will be developed by a partnership between industry, research, philanthropic and finance sectors. It will support projects delivered with knowledge institutes and industry stakeholders, anchored at key innovation and employment precincts, including Parkville, Arden Macauley, Fishermans Bend, Latrobe Bundoora and Monash Clayton.
A further $50 million for research and development loans. The initiative will provide loan support to SME’s that are eligible for the R&D tax incentive program to borrow their entitlements at low rates of interest. Further details of the initiative arehere.
Supporting new renewable energy zones through grid investment, delivery of the Victorian Big Battery, upgrades to transmission networks and new clean energy generation projects to be facilitated. Total funding of $682 million will also attract and fast-track investment in innovative energy projects that will deliver transformational benefits to Victoria, with consumers able to benefit from these projects from 2025.
If you think that any of the above areas are applicable to your business and would like to discuss further about how we can help you, please email us as per contact information below:
Matt Murphy – Managing Director | mattm@primefinancial.com.au |
Brendan Brown – Partner | brendanb@primefinancial.com.au |
Simone Quin – Partner | simoneq@primefinancial.com.au |
Paul Minieri – Director | paulm@primefinancial.com.au |
Jade Nicholls – Director | jaden@primefinancial.com.au |
Stuart Thomson – Director | stuartt@primefinancial.com.au |
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