Did you have a coronavirus suspected or infected employee at your business that led you to hire deep cleaning services? If yes, The COVIDSafe Deep Cleaning Rebate is for you. It is available for both small and medium-sized businesses to assist them in covering the costs involved in hiring professional cleaning services to decontaminate or deep clean a business premise so as to prevent the risk of getting others infected after a suspected case is identified.

No matter, if you have previously received funding under the Victorian Government’s Economic Survival Package and Business Support Package, you are still eligible to apply for this program.

What Support Is Available?

As per the rebate, eligible businesses will receive a grant of $10,000 for a total cleaning cost of $12,500 that covers up to 80 per cent of the combined cleaning costs at the worksite.

This grant is ongoing and the rebate will be given through a grant application process.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the rebate, businesses must meet the following criteria:

• operate from a worksite or premises in Victoria where a person working onsite is suspected or confirmed to have coronavirus.
• have undertaken a ‘deep clean’ or ‘decontamination clean’ of the worksite in accordance with Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) guidelines.
• have evidence of the expenditure incurred for the cost of the decontamination cleaning at the affected worksite with payment details.
• hold a valid Australian Business Number (ABN).
• have an annual payroll of less than $3 million in 2019-20 on an ungrouped basis.
• be registered with WorkSafe if employing people.
• be registered as a trading business with the responsible federal or state regulator.

To prove eligibility, a business needs to provide an attestation that someone who was suspected or confirmed to have coronavirus (COVID-19) attended the premises or worksite while they may have been infectious, along with the evidence of payment involved in the deep cleaning process.

Before applying, all eligible businesses must ensure that their ABN registration information is up-to-date at the time of application. If any information in the application is found to be false or misleading, the grant will be repayable on demand.

If you want professional assistance to take you through the application process, talk to our tax accountants at KPG Taxation. We are well versed in the application process and will help you get a rebate.