The Aged Care Sector is at a critical juncture both in terms of fulfilling its obligations to residents and care recipients as well as remaining financially sustainable. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety determined that the current system is not fit for purpose and made 148 Recommendations in its Final Report. These recommendations were made to remediate the current system and to bring it up to a standard that is sustainable and meets the care needs and safety expectations of older Australians and their families.

The Federal Budget has been delivered and has focused on continuing to stimulate the economy out of the COVID-19 induced recession. The Government has emphasised spending in order to bolster economic recovery.

As with all Budgets, these are announcements only and have not been legislated. The details are still to be worked through, and both Houses of Parliament need to pass legislation before the announcements take effect.

The key personal, superannuation and business-related tax highlights of last night’s Budget are summarised below:

FRINGE BENEFITS TAX ("FBT")

If you or your business have historically been using AUSkey to access Government portal and websites, you will need to make changes before March 2020 as Auskey is being decommissioned. The new replacement service is called myGovID. It will continue to be a secure login that identifies an individual operating on behalf of a business when using Government online services.

The StewartBrown December 2020 Aged Care Financial Performance Survey incorporates detailed financial and supporting data from 1,200 aged care homes (97,056 beds/places) and 45,553 home care packages across Australia. The quarterly survey is the largest benchmark in the aged care sector and provides invaluable insight into the trends and drivers of financial performance at the sector level and at the aged care home or programme level.