The Government is continuing to invest in Australian apprenticeships to ensure businesses have the skilled workforce they need.
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Small Business – skills and training boost
The Government is introducing skills and training boosts to support small businesses to train and upskill their employees. The boost will apply to eligible expenditures incurred from 7:30 pm (AEDT) on 29 March 2022 (Budget night) until 30 June 2024.
Small businesses (with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million) will be able to deduct an additional 20 per cent of expenditure incurred on external training courses provided to their employees. The external training courses will need to be provided to employees in Australia or online, and delivered by entities registered in Australia.
Some exclusions will apply, such as for inhouse or on-the-job training and expenditure on external training courses for persons other than employees.
The boost for eligible expenditure incurred by 30 June 2022 will be claimed in tax returns for the following income year. The boost for eligible expenditure incurred between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2024, will be included in the income year in which the expenditure is incurred.
This measure is estimated to decrease receipts by $550.0 million, and increase payments by $7.0 million over the forward estimates period.
Small Business – technology investment boost
The Government is introducing a technology investment boost to support digital adoption by small businesses. The boost will apply to eligible expenditures incurred from 7:30 pm (AEDT) on 29 March 2022 (Budget night) until 30 June 2023.
Small businesses (with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million) will be able to deduct an additional 20 per cent of the cost incurred on business expenses and depreciating assets that support their digital adoption, such as portable payment devices, cyber security systems or subscriptions to cloud-based services.
An annual cap will apply in each qualifying income year so that expenditures up to $100,000 will be eligible for the boost.
The boost for eligible expenditure incurred by 30 June 2022 will be claimed in tax returns for the following income year. The boost for eligible expenditure incurred between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023 will be included in the income year in which the expenditure is incurred.
This measure is estimated to decrease receipts by $1.0 billion, and increase payments by $7.2 million over the forward estimates period.
As part of the government’s COVID‑19 response, the Government has committed $291 billion or 14.7 per cent of GDP in direct economic support for individuals, households and businesses. The Australian economy has rebounded at its fastest pace on record over the latter half of last year, outperforming all major advanced economies in 2020.
With JobKeeper having played its role and nearly one million jobs added since May 2020, there are now more people in work than ever before. The 2021‑22 Budget will consolidate these gains and put Australia on course for the unemployment rate to fall below 5 per cent, reaching 4¾ per cent by the June quarter of 2023.
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