The NSW Government on Tue 4.3.2014, announced that it will provide a $6,000 payroll tax rebate to businesses that employ workers who have recently lost their jobs through large-scale restructures. NSW Treasurer Mike Baird said the $6,000 Fresh Start Support payroll tax rebate includes the existing $5,000 rebate already available under the NSW Government’s Jobs Action Plan (JAP). The JAP provides a payroll tax rebate to businesses that employ new workers in new eligible employment – paid in 2 parts, at 12 months and 24 months after the employee is hired.
As an extension of the JAP, the Fresh Start Support scheme means that an employer can be listed as a designated employer, and former employees of this designated employer will activate the Fresh Start Scheme id=”mce_marker”,000 supplement when a new employer hires them. The NSW Government said “initial guidelines for the scheme state that a ‘designated employer’ is one which has made 100 or more employees redundant (in the case of metropolitan employers) or 50 employees redundant (in the case of non-metropolitan employers), which will cause significant disruption to an industry or region”. It added that these criteria “may be flexible where a large-scale retrenchment has had an inordinate impact on a particular region, occupational field or industry”.
Source: NSW Premier’s media release, 4 March 2014
[LTN 42, 4/3/14]