This will be our final post on the September 2020 issued Victorian Support Package. So far we have covered the Sole Trader Support Fund, the Outdoor Eating and Entertainment Package, the Business Support Fund Round 3 and the Licensed Venue Fund. If you are looking at information on those grants and want to know if you are eligible, review our earlier posts in the ‘Grants’ tab of this blog.
This post will look specifically at specific grants within the Melbourne City Recovery Fund and the Business Resilience Package, as well as how they work overall. To recap, the recent round of funding includes the below:
- Business Support Fund (Third Round)
- Licensed Venue Fund (Hospitality Only)
- Sole Trader Support Fund
- Alpine Support Grants
- Business Chambers and Trader Groups Grants
- The Melbourne City Recovery Fund
- Outdoor Eating and Entertainment Package (Hospitality)
- A number of other schemes, deferrals, and tax waivers.
Melbourne CBD based hospitality venues qualify for an additional grant under the Business Support Fund that their regional counterparts do not qualify for, that is the CBD Small Hospitality Grant. Broadly, businesses will have already met the criteria for the Business Support Fund which include WorkSafe, GST and ABN registrations being active. In addition to this, the business must be within Metropolitan Melbourne (as determined by postcodes), the seating capacity must be more than 10 patrons at any time, and the business must be operating under a valid Class 2 or 3 Service Sector Certificate of Registration under the Food Act 1984 (VIC). Note that it is expected that businesses will be invited to apply for this grant based on previous submissions of the Business Support Fund. If you believe you are eligible and have not received an invitation, contact the business.vic.gov.au help centre as soon as possible.
The Business Resilience Package is not a grant in itself, but a title that encompasses all of the grants and deferrals under the September issued Business Support Package that we have been discussing in these posts. We have covered off most of the main grants in this post and prior posts, however we will briefly cover a few more in summary form below:
- Alpine Business Grants ($4.3 Million): Grants of up to $20,000 for alpine businesses that pay a service charge to Alpine Resort Management Boards
- Melbourne City Recovery Fund ($100 million): Allows for grants to small and medium businesses to receive grants for converting outdoor spaces; also provides for marketing budgets and improvements to the CBD streetscape
- $20 Million Voucher Program: Provides vouchers for small businesses moving online to off-the-shelf software providers like Square and Shopify
- Export Recovery Package ($15.7 Million): Assistance to exporters that are facing logistics and supply chain issues due to the pandemic
- Liquor Licence Fee Waivers ($27 million): Waiving of liquor licence fees for 2021
The above is far from a comprehensive list, and many waivers, grants and deferrals exist under the scheme. Business owners and operators should always consult with an experienced Chartered Accounting Firm when dealing with Government Grant Applications.