2020-21 Federal Budget Summary

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg presented his second budget on October 6 in what was described as the, "most important budget since World War II". As expected, there is massive expenditure to reboot and stimulate the economy after the economic devastation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The Budget outlined $85 billion of stimulus over four years, which is centred around immediate asset write-offs, income tax cuts and the extension of JobKeeper.

The Treasurer promised a budget that was “all about jobs”, and employment is indeed the theme of the suite of budget measures. For small and medium businesses, this translates to new wage subsidies for hiring young job-seekers and new apprentices, albeit with tight eligibility criteria. The Treasurer said, “There is no economic recovery without a jobs recovery,” and “There is no budget recovery without a jobs recovery.”

Frydenberg’s goal is to get businesses investing again, in new equipment and machinery, and new jobs. To this end, the government has announced a massive investment allowance that will enable nearly all Australian businesses to fully write-off all new assets purchased and used by June 2022.

We have summarised some of the key budget announcements including:

  • the bringing forward of the individual tax relief planned for 2021, backdated to 1 July 2020​ 
  • a new loss carry-back for losses incurred up to June 2022 for companies with turnovers of up to $5 billion​ ​
  • allowing most businesses to fully deduct any investment into depreciable assets until 30 June 2022 and
  • a new JobMaker Hiring Credit for companies employing staff aged between 16 to 35 years old.​

Click on the links below to read more on each topic:

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