SMALL BUSINESS CASHFLOW SCHEME

On Friday 1 May 2020 Hon Grant Robertson, Minister of Finance and Minister of Revenue announced the latest COVID-19 measures to assist Small and Medium Business with immediate cashflow needs by providing interest free loans for a year.

Amount

The scheme will provide $10,000 and an additional $1800 per equivalent full-time employee, up to $100,000 to small and medium businesses who are eligible.

Eligibility

The eligibility criteria will be the same as the Wage Subsidy Scheme. The scheme is for businesses with 50 or fewer employees.  Businesses will also have to declare that they are a viable business, and the funds are to be used for core business operating costs.  All businesses who apply will be required to enter a legally binding loan contract.

Terms

Loans will be interest free if they are paid back within a year.  The interest rate will be 3% pa for a maximum term of five years and repayments will not be required within the first two years.

When will this be available?

The scheme is being administered by Inland Revenue and applications will be available from 12 May 2020.

For details of this announcement please click here.

For more information please see the COVID-19 Small Business Cashflow scheme, a small business cashflow loan calculator is now available.

Business Finance Guarantee Scheme

The Government launched a business finance guarantee scheme for small and medium-sized businesses, to protect jobs and support the economy.

There were also changes announced around this scheme on Friday:

• removed the government requirements for a general security agreement
• removed the requirement for businesses to have drawn down on existing loan facilities before they can apply.

For more information on this scheme, please click here.

ACC

Click here for all updates from ACC about COVID-19 relief including how to arrange putting Levy payments on hold(option available to put these on hold until 30 June 2020).

Important: if you want to discuss your Levy payment with ACC you need to register for MyACC for Business before you do – click here for link on how to do this.