Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Act 2021 (79 of 2021)

Schedule 3   Tax-free treatment of payments from COVID-19 business support programs

Income Tax Assessment Act 1997

2   After section 59-97

Insert:

59-98 Commonwealth small business support payments relating to the coronavirus known as COVID-19

(1) A payment an entity receives is not assessable income and is not *exempt income if:

(a) the entity receives the payment under a program administered by the Commonwealth or an authority of the Commonwealth; and

(b) the program is declared under subsection (2) to be an eligible program (whether this declaration is made before, on or after the day the entity receives the payment); and

(c) the entity receives the payment in the 2021-22 *financial year; and

(d) the entity is a *small business entity, or an entity covered by subsection 59-97(2), for the income year in which the entity receives the payment.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b), the Minister may, by legislative instrument, declare a program to be an eligible program if the Minister is satisfied that the program is, in effect:

(a) responding to economic impacts of the coronavirus known as COVID-19; and

(b) directed at supporting *businesses the operations of which have been significantly disrupted as a result of a public health directive.