If you employ 50 or fewer staff, you may be able to apply for the Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme. This is a one-off 5 year loan. You can borrow a maximum of $10,000 plus $1,800 per full-time-equivalent employee within your business.
- When applying for the loan, you need to be able to declare that your business is viable.
- Your business must have experienced a minimum 30% decline in actual or predicted revenue over the period of a month, compared with the same month last year. You can use the Revenue Estimator Tool to better understand your revenue.
- Applications are open until 31 December 2023 through myIR. If your business does not have a myIR account, you will need to create one to apply.
Loans will be interest free if they are paid back within 2 years. The interest rate is 3% for a maximum term of 5 years.
Inland Revenue has a calculator to help you work out how much you may be able to borrow.
Eligible businesses and organisations
- To qualify for the loan, you must have 50 of few full-time-equivalent employees
- If you have received the wage subsidy for your employees, you are eligible for the loan.
- If you did not apply for the wage subsidy, you can still receive the loan if you meet the criteria of the wage subsidy.
- Your business must be viable, and you need a plan to ensure it remains viable.
- Please talk with us about this before applying for the business loan
- Being viable means the directors or owners believe it is more likely than not the business will be able to pay its debts as they fall due within the next 18 months.
- You must keep evidence of the business ongoing viability at the time of requesting the loan.
Applying for the loan
For detailed instructions click here to download a step by step guide on how to apply through myIR.
In summary, once you’ve logged into your business myIR account, select ‘Apply for a small business loan’ under ‘I want to…’ and follow the instructions.
Most applicants will receive their loan payment in full from Inland Revenue within five working days. Once you have submitted the loan application you will not be able to edit and change any details.
What you need before applying
- A myIR account for your business. This will be a separate username and login from your personal myIR account (unless you are a sole trader). Click here to register a myIR account for a business.
- The bank account you want the loan to be paid into
- Your New Zealand Business number (NZBN) - go to www.nzbn.govt.nz/get-an-nzbn to check if you have one or apply if you don’t already have one
- Employees details: if you have received the wage subsidy from Work & Income or completed payday filing in the last 30 days, your employee’s information will be prepopulated. Otherwise, you will need to manually enter your employees’ name, IRD number, and whether they are full or part time employees.
Important Notes
You will need to repay the loan in the future. This is a short-term measure to help during the recovery from Covid-19.
Your bank will consider future loan repayments (servicing the loan), in future borrowing requests. For example, in 18 months-time if you want to buy a house, the bank will consider your ability to meet the bank mortgage repayments, as well as repaying the IRD loan. Having an outstanding loan to IRD is likely to decrease future borrowing potential.
Contact Us
Contact Tim Doyle or Jane Evans today for a no obligation phone call or meeting on 07 823 4980 or contactus. Our office is in Cambridge, NZ, but distance is no problem. We have many international and national clients.
This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.
