As some of you may know, take away my rock music loving alter ego and you’ve got a mild-mannered former Business Manager who spent a bunch of years working here in Australia across a bunch of different music industry clients.

In these crazy times, I thought I’d throw together some basic tips for y’all for both your business and maybe even personal situation and summarise some of these Australian Government announcements that keep on coming, as they relate primarily to those of us that are sole traders, self employed in the music industry.

Please note, this does not replace any advice you may have received/be receiving from your Accountant/Financial Adviser etc.

Just to further diminish my credibility and any risk of you taking the advice below as gospel, I am currently listening to Nickelback as I write this 😉

Income Tips

• Royalties: if you are a music artist, please tell me you’re already registered with APRA and also PPCA and receiving music royalties? All this encouragement for people to stream your music / radio play = $$$. Yes, I know not much, but every bit helps… For larger artists, PPCA are looking to pre-pay royalties, which you may have already heard about directly from them. Similarly, any international royalty societies or music platforms you could be registered with, check in to see what balances might be currently owing and if you are eligible to get these transferred.

• Sole Traders/Self Employed: The Government has amended the eligibility criteria for the Jobseeker payment beyond just the unemployed, so if you are a sole trader / self employed and your income has substantially dropped, you may now be eligible. Click here for more info

• Early release of superannuation: You may be able to access up to $10,000 of your superannuation in 2019-20 and a further $10,000 in 2020-21, tax free, if you are in significant financial distress.

• Outstanding Tax/BAS returns: If you are one of those people who have outstanding Income Tax/BAS returns, you could potentially be sitting on a refund, which could be more than handy right now. Getting your returns up to date could also potentially help with your eligibility for the various supplements being announced every other day.

• ABN/TFN: For those of you that have been operating under an ABN and now may find yourself as needing to become an employee using your TFN, make sure you “claim the tax free threshold’ for your TFN income to ensure you are not being over-taxed.

• PAYG Instalments: If you are paying quarterly PAYG instalments, perhaps you've already paid more than you will now be required to pay, given 2019-20 profit projections are likely to be far less than initially anticipated. You may potentially be able to amend past instalments with the ATO, resulting in a refund. Definitely one though to see advice from your accountant before undertaking.

Expenses/Liabilities

• DirectDebits/Subscriptions/Renewals: Now is the time to be reviewing if there’s any direct debits, memberships, registrations you are still paying for, but no longer using. Get them cancelled! For any upcoming renewals, you might also be able to switch to monthly/quarterly payments, rather than a chunky annual cost that is soon falling due.

• Home loans/Rentals: Most banks have already indicated they will offer holiday periods on home loans for customers, so check in with your bank if you fall into this category. Likewise both commercial & private landlords are being encouraged to offer rent relief.

• Small Business supplements: Tax free payments of up to $100,000 for small business & not for profit businesses to help meet wage & business expense obligations.

• Defer tax obligations: If you have any Tax obligations that you can no longer meet, contact the ATO to discuss deferring these. The ATO is more than accommodating at the best of times, so please don’t let any fear hold you back from contacting them.

• Keep Receipts/Track Expenses: With so many different working arrangements now in place, make sure you are keeping receipts & a timeline of your “Home Office” expenses, when you use your private vehicle for work related use, telephone & internet usage for work related use. Likewise, potentially home recording studios…. You may be able to claim most of these in your tax returns for the year ended 30 June 2020.

• Prepare a Cashflow Forecast / Plan: Doesn't need to be complex, but taking an hour or so to map out income & expenses for the next 6 to 12 months on a spreadsheet/paper will help to deal with the situation & identify potential solutions. Trust me, done that already.....!

Helpful Links

• Music Victoria has a pretty awesome bunch of resources. Click here to view.

• Support Act: is the place to go if you require crisis relief services and are an artist, crew or music worker. https://supportact.org.au/

• Self Starter Podcast: an awesome podcast hosted by Andy Dowling with lot's of small business owners that might just spark some ideas & creativity. https://selfstarter.com.au/all-podcasts/

• Rock Lives Here Aussie Legends playlist: Click here to check out a bunch of my favourite Aussie legends who have released new music in 2020. Not a definitive list and it's collaborative, so add anything else you've been loving.

Above all, we need to ensure we support each other, our family & our friends in any way that we possibly can.

We all have our own unique talents, traits and awesomeness and this is the time to let this shine for the benefit of all. These times of crisis often brings out the best in people and presents opportunity for those who are willing to take them.

We are headed for a bleak winter here in Australia, but as philosopher Albert Camus is quoted as saying, “In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.”

Hit me up if you want any more info or just to touch base - scott@rockliveshere.com.au

Scott