Who can get a COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021 payment

You must operate a business in New Zealand that employs and pays the employees named in your application. By business we mean:

• a registered business, sole trader or self-employed person (who may or may not employ other employees)
• a registered charity (incorporated under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 and registered under the Charities Act 2005, or registered under the Charities Act 2005)
• an incorporated society (incorporated under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908)
• a non-government organisation, post settlement governance entity or, under specified circumstances, a commonly-owned group.
  • A commonly-owned group is a business, for the purpose of applying for this subsidy, where one company within the group employs all the employees, who carry out their work at other companies within the group, and the other companies generate the revenue for the group (in other words, the employment and revenue generation functions are separated within the group). The company within the group that employs the staff must be the company that makes this declaration.
• State sector organisations are generally not eligible.

You must be in New Zealand, or Australia, in order to be eligible to apply.

Each of the employees named in your application must be legally employed by your business, be employed in New Zealand and have not been given notice of redundancy at the date of your application.

When you apply for a COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021 payment you must not also be receiving a payment under a COVID-19 Wage Subsidy 2021 scheme, the Short-Term Absence Payment, or Leave Support Scheme in respect of any of the employees named in your application.

"Employee" includes you if you are a sole trader or self-employed person that does not employ employees.

The Wage Subsidy August 2021 #8 is available to all eligible businesses in New Zealand affected by the continuation of Alert Levels 3 and 4 from 17 August 2021. This includes businesses operating at lower alert levels.

Your business must meet the revenue decline test:

• your business is being or will be affected by the continuation of Alert Levels 3 or 4 from 17 August 2021, and
• your business has had, or you predict will have, a decline in revenue that can be attributed to the effect the continuation of Alert Levels 3 and 4 from 17 August 2021 has had on your business, and that is:
  • at least a 40% decline between 23 November 2021 and 6 December 2021 inclusive (this is the revenue test period), compared to a typical 14 consecutive days of revenue in the six weeks immediately before the move to Alert Level 4 on 17 August 2021 (this is the default comparator period), or
  • if your business has highly seasonal revenue, you must have at least 40% decline over the revenue test period compared to the same 14 consecutive days in 2020 or 2019 (this is the seasonal comparator period), provided you can demonstrate that the seasonal nature of your business makes it harder to meet the 40% revenue decline using the default comparator period than if your business was not of a seasonal nature, and
  • the calculations and comparisons above cannot include any payments made to you from:
    • this subsidy
    • other COVID-19 wage subsidy schemes
    • the Short-term Absence Payment
    • the Leave Support Scheme
    • the COVID-19 Essential Workers Leave Support scheme
    • the COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment
    • the COVID-19 Small Business Cashflow scheme.

If your business is affected by changes in alert level during the revenue test period, see note below.

You can include a fall in projected capital income as revenue for the purpose of an application if:

• your business is a research and development intensive “start-up” business, and
• you have no revenue other than seed or venture capital or Government funding, and
• you’re recognised by Callaghan Innovation as a legitimate research and development start-up business.

If alert levels change during the revenue test period

If your decline in revenue is partially caused because of a move to or from the COVID-19 Protection Framework (CPF, this is also called the “traffic light system), as well as Alert Levels 3 and 4, you may still be able to apply.

For example, if your business is fully located in an area that moves from Alert Levels 3 or 4 to the COVID-19 Protection Framework (CPF), you may attribute your revenue decline to the effect that any combination of Alert Levels 4 or 3 and the CPF has had on your business, but not to the effects of the CPF alone.

• If your business is partly located within such an area, you may attribute your revenue decline to the effect that any combination of Alert Levels 3 or 4 and the CPF has had on your business, but not to the effects of Alert Level 2 or the CPF within that area alone, or to the effects of Alert Level 2 or the CPF outside of that area.
• If your business is fully located outside of such an area, you may not attribute any of your revenue decline to the effects of Alert Level 2 or the CPF.

For commonly-owned groups:

• you must use the default comparator period to calculate the revenue decline test across the business, or
• you can use the seasonal comparator period to calculate the revenue decline test across the business.

If one or more of the companies in your commonly-owned group are seasonal in nature, and this makes it harder for the commonly-owned group to meet the 40% revenue decline test using the default comparator period than if they were not seasonal, you can use the seasonal comparator period for the companies that are seasonal in nature, and the default comparator period for the companies that are not seasonal. This will determine the aggregate revenue decline across the commonly-owned group (if any) for the revenue decline test.

You must prepare and retain evidence to support this application, such as records that demonstrate:

• how the decline in your revenue was attributable to the continuation of Alert Levels 3 or 4 from 17 August 2021, and
• if you're an employer that has highly seasonal revenue:
  • the basis on which you claim your business to be of a seasonal nature, and
  • how the seasonal nature of your business made it harder for your business to meet the 40% revenue decline using the default comparator period than if your business was not of a seasonal nature.

Before making an application, you must have taken active steps to mitigate the impact of the continuation of Alert Levels 3 or 4 from 17 August 2021 on your business activities. This includes (but is not limited to) engaging with your bank, drawing on your cash reserves as appropriate, or making an insurance claim. Please retain evidence of the active steps your business has taken.

The previous Wage Subsidy payments have now ended. You can no longer apply for these, although we may still be processing some applications and making payments.

Find out more about the previous Wage Subsidy August 2021 payments