Special eligibility rules

New to business

If you are a new business that didn't have income in the 2018–19 year, you may still be eligible to receive the cash flow boost if you made supplies or sales in a tax period ending before 12 March 2020. The December 2019 quarter and the month of February 2020 are the last tax periods that end before 12 March 2020.

In most cases, if you lodged an activity statement before 12 March 2020 which showed sales, you won't need to do anything.

If you made a supply in one of those relevant tax periods but didn't lodge any activity statements before 12 March 2020, you need to contact us and provide further information so that we can determine if you are eligible.

If your business made no sales before 1 January 2020 for quarterly lodgers) or 1 March 2020 (for monthly lodgers) you will not be eligible.

Find out how to provide more information about your eligibility or ineligibility.

Charities

If you are a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), you are eligible regardless of when you were registered as a charity, if you:

• had an aggregated annual turnover under $50 million (generally based on prior year turnover)
• made eligible payments that you were required to withhold from (even if the amount you were required to withhold is zero).

Business created PAYG withholding role after 12 March 2020

The cash flow boost is intended for employers who:

• make payments subject to withholding
• withhold from these payments
• have not rearranged their affairs for the dominant purpose of making themselves eligible for the cash flow boost where they would not otherwise be eligible.

While having a PAYG withholding role before 12 March 2020 is not specifically required by legislation, we would expect that a business who has been paying wages or other relevant payments would already have been registered. A business without a PAYG withholding registration in place on 12 March 2020 would generally not be entitled to the cash flow boost.

There may be limited circumstances where the business was not registered on 12 March 2020 and may still be eligible. These circumstances include where:

• the business started employing in the March 2020 period, and either  
  • the employees were engaged before 12 March 2020 but were not required to be paid until 12 March 2020 or later
  • the employees were engaged after 12 March 2020, but the business can demonstrate there were other reasons for engaging the employee after that date, considering the current economic environment that businesses are currently operating in
• the business has a history of paying wages to the relevant employees and can substantiate this.

If you can demonstrate the above circumstances, contact us and provide additional information so we can determine if you’re eligible.

A business that has a history of paying wages but has not been registered for PAYG withholding, may be liable for penalties for failing to withhold and failing to register for PAYG withholding.

Entities that are not registered for GST

You don’t need to be registered for GST to be eligible. If you have already lodged your 2019 tax return showing that you had an amount included in your assessable income in relation to you carrying on a business and meet other eligibility criteria, you do not need to do anything.

If you are not required to be registered for GST and you are not required to lodge a 2019 tax return (or it is not yet due), you may be eligible if you made a sale in the period 1 July 2018 to 31 December 2019.

You must provide us with additional information about your business activity (such as sales made in relevant periods) so we can determine if you’re eligible.

If your business made no sales before 1 January 2020, you will not be eligible.

Find out how to provide more information about your eligibility or ineligibility.

Entities with a reduction in turnover to below $50 million

If your aggregated turnover in previous years was greater than $50 million, but you expect it to be less than $50 million in 2019–20, you may still be eligible to receive a cash flow boost.

To provide more information about your circumstances, contact us.

Find out how to Provide more information about your eligibility or ineligibility.

Businesses with related parties, or that are part of a group

Your aggregated turnover will include your annual turnover and the annual turnover of any entity that is connected with you or that is your affiliate. This may affect your eligibility for the cash flow boost. If you are part of a tax consolidated group or GST group these entities may be part of the same group, however it may also include entities which are outside these groups.

An entity is connected with you if it can exercise control, such as voting rights and distributions of income or capital. An entity is an affiliate of yours if they act, or could reasonably be expected to act, according to your directions or wishes, in relation to their business affairs.

We will use the annual turnover in your most recent previous year’s tax return, and other information held by us, to determine your eligibility. If your annual turnover and the annual turnovers of entities connected or affiliated with you total more than $50 million, then you (and the entities connected or affiliated with you) will not be eligible for the cash flow boost.

If you are not required to lodge a tax return, or don't have lodgments from previous years, you may still be eligible if we are satisfied that your aggregated annual turnover is under $50 million.

Find out how to work out your aggregated turnover.

Businesses that are members of a consolidated or GST group

If you are a member of an income tax consolidated group or a GST group, you may be eligible for the cash flow boost if you can individually meet the eligibility criteria.

The lodgment of a tax return by the head company or a GST return by the representative member does not provide us enough information to determine your eligibility for the cash flow boost, even where they include amounts of assessable income or taxable supplies made by you.

We will need you to provide us with additional information about your business activity (such as sales you made in the relevant periods) so we can determine if you’re eligible.

Businesses with multiple branches

If you are an entity that operates several branches of a business using one ABN, you are considered a single business for the purposes of the cash flow boost. This means you are not entitled to receive a separate cash flow boost for each branch.

Businesses that are part of a GST joint venture 

A GST joint venture can't be registered for PAYG withholding however, entities that are members of the venture may be registered for PAYG withholding in their own right. In this scenario, the entitlement to cash flow boost will be determined based on the PAYG withholding reported by the joint venture member.

Businesses that use another entity to manage payroll

Only an entity making payments subject to withholding and notifying us of the withholding amount may be eligible for the cash flow boost. If another entity is responsible for the payroll functions and withholding obligations for one or more other entities, those other entities are not eligible for the cash flow boost.

Impact of lodgment deferrals

You won't be disadvantaged if, before 12 March 2020, we gave you a deferral for your:

• 2018–19 tax return, or it is not yet due for you
• activity statements, or you are not required to lodge an activity statement yet.

We'll need more information to confirm your eligibility for the cash flow boosts if you:

• haven't lodged because of the deferral we gave you
• can't lodge your deferred tax return or activity statement before you lodge your March 2020 activity statement.

If you can lodge your deferred tax return or activity statement before your March 2020 activity statement, we should be able to determine your eligibility when you lodge.

Providing more information about your eligibility or ineligibility

Some businesses must provide us with more information before we can determine if they're eligible to receive the cash flow boost. For example, we will need more information from:

• businesses with aggregated turnover that reduces to below $50 million for the 2019–20 year
• businesses that do not have an obligation to lodge at least one of the following  
  • a 2019 tax return which shows an amount included in assessable income in relation to carrying on a business
  • an activity statement or GST return for any tax period that started after 1 July 2018 and ended before 12 March 2020 which shows a taxable, GST-free or input-taxed sale.

If you haven't received the cash flow boost automatically, check out our eligibility companion guide which gives an overview of how we determine eligibility.

You can also contact us if your business is not eligible to receive the cash flow boost, but you are concerned that a cash flow boost has been credited to you. For example, because you have a business structure that makes identifying affiliates difficult.

If you need to discuss your eligibility, phone us on 13 28 66 and select option 7.

See how to Contact us or Find it on ATO Community.

Additional information we may need as evidence

The supporting documents we may ask for will depend on your circumstances.

If you have a reduction in turnover

For businesses that have experienced a reduction in turnover, the documents may include:

• business records showing year-to-date turnover
• directives issued by state or territory governments that prohibit trading
• other documents that demonstrate the reasons for turnover declining.

If you have not lodged tax returns or activity statements

For businesses that have not lodged tax returns or activity statements and need to provide information about their business activity the documents may include:

• details of when the business commenced and the nature of the activities that the business carries on
• bank statements in the business name which confirm payments received in relation to business activity
• tax invoices or receipts provided for any supplies made by the business
• records of merchant payment facilities
• evidence of corporate structure, including ASIC registration for companies, partnership agreement, executed trust deed
• occupancy agreements (such as leases) for business premises
• documents showing business financing arrangements
• business contracts
• advertising of business services.

If we need documents about your employees

For businesses that need to provide additional information about their employees, we'll need evidence that an employment relationship exists. Details include:

• who the employees are
• how long employees have been employed
• the work contracts between your business and your employees
• payroll information
• employer insurance policies, such as workers compensation insurance
• the work employees performed in line with the remuneration
• superannuation payments you have made
• the nature of the work employees do for your business.

Evidence of payments made which were subject to withholding

Businesses will also need to provide evidence that payments have been made to the employees during the relevant tax period. To show payments were made, we generally require copies of original bank statements verifying the salary and wage payments made to employees in the period. The original bank statements should be on an official bank letterhead and include the entity name and address of the business.

Further evidence of salary and wage payments may include:

• pay slips you have issued to employees
• employee declarations, such as a tax file number (TFN) declaration or withholding variation
• registration for, or remittance of, state and territory payroll taxes.

Find out about the delivery of the cash flow boosts.