Grants, funding and assistance
Grants and other funding programs may be available from the Australian, State and Territory governments and, in some cases, from local councils.
Generally there are few grants available for starting a business, and those available are competitive or only available for specific circumstances.
There is, however, a range of assistance – including grants – available for business activities such as expanding your business, innovation, exporting, and research and development.
We offer free business advice to all Tasmanian small businesses through the Enterprise Centres Tasmania network.
Please Note
The Department of State Growth has received a number of reports of private operators approaching businesses selling information about government business grants. This information is publicly and freely available on this page and the Federal Governments website www.business.gov.au
No Australian government, federal, state or local, charges an online fee for any information on grants and funding.
Bushfire 2019 Assistance
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| Bushfire Business Disruption Grant | Funding to support eligible Tasmanian businesses who have experienced significant disruption to the day-to-day running of their business as a result of the recent bushfires. | 22 Mar 19 |
| Disaster Recovery Allowance | Income support payments for employees, primary producers and sole traders who can show they have experienced a loss of income as a direct result of the bushfires. | 1 Aug 19 |
| Disaster Transport Subsidy | Freight subsidies are available to assist primary producers impacted by the Tasmanian bushfires | 31 May 19 |
Community Child Care Fund Special Circumstances Grant Opportunity | The Federal Liberal National Government is offering child care providers in Tasmania impacted by the recent bushfires special grant funding of up to $10,000 to help with community recovery. |
For non-business related disaster assistance go to TasALERT
General
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| 26Ten Grants for Employers | 26Ten works to increase the literacy and numeracy skills of Tasmanian workers (paid and voluntary). | 22 Feb 19 |
| Accelerating Commercialisation helps small and medium businesses, entrepreneurs and researchers to commercialise novel products, services and processes. Only companies are eligible to apply | ongoing | |
| Advanced Manufacturing Innovation and Growth Voucher System | The program is to support advanced manufacturing enterprises to undertake innovation and growth initiatives. It covers up to half of the project cost with the applicant to contribute the other half in cash (i.e. not in kind). Minimum grant assistance is $5 000, maximum grant assistance is $15 000. | ongoing |
| Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII) | Provides small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with grant funding to develop innovative solutions for government policy and service delivery challenges. | 17 Apr 19 |
| Burnie - Local Trader Marketing Grants Program | Burnie City Council has allocated $20,000 to support discrete promotional activities involving partnerships of Burnie businesses during the 2018/19 Financial Year. The promotional activity must be completed by June 30, 2019. | 30 June 19 |
Most local councils have year round grant and assistance programs. Check out your council's website to find out what's on offer. | ongoing | |
| CSIRO Kick-Start Program | Eligible businesses may get access to dollar-matched funding of $10,000-$50,000 to undertake research activities with CSIRO. | ongoing |
| Cyber Security Small Business Program | This program provides a grant of up to $2,100 for a certified small business cyber security health check to determine business risk and areas that need attention. | 30 Jun 20 |
This programme uses quality facilitators and advisers, drawn from industry, to ensure businesses get the advice and support they need to improve their competitiveness and productivity. Only companies are eligible to apply. | ongoing | |
| Investment Taskforce (Northern Tasmania) | The taskforce's role is to assist business expansion or new projects that can’t access finance from traditional sources to find alternative financing options. | ongoing |
| The scheme provides small, interest-free loans of up to $3 000 to people on low incomes who want to start their own business or grow an existing one. | ongoing | |
| The R&D Tax Incentive is a targeted, generous and easy to access entitlement program that helps businesses offset some of the costs of doing R&D. Only companies are eligible to apply | ongoing | |
| Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grants | The grants help Australian SMEs to invest in projects that build capabilities aligned with Defence's stated Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities. Only companies are eligible to apply. | 30 Jun 22 |
| Tasmanian Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme | A joint initiative of the Tasmanian Government and Aurora Energy to assist our Tasmanian community with the purchase of energy efficient products | 30 Apr 19 |
| Visiting Trade Mark and Patent Attorneys | Provides preliminary consultations and advice to prospective clients, in-confidence, without obligation and free-of-charge. | ongoing |
Export
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| New Market Expansion Program | Funding is available to eligible Tasmanian-based enterprises with a sales turnover between $300 000 and $20 million, to undertake approved marketing activities related to developing new international markets. | 30 April 19 |
Assistance is available to eligible Tasmanian advanced manufacturing enterprises with a sales turnover in excess of $150 000 up to $20 million, for approved marketing related activities in advanced manufacturing interstate and international markets. | ongoing | |
| Defence Global Competitiveness Grant | Defence-related businesses may be eligible for a grant to invest in projects that overcome barriers to accessing export opportunities. Only companies are eligible to apply | ongoing |
Efic (Export Finance and Insurance Corporation) may help small business exporters access the finance their business needs to support an export contract when their bank is unable to do so. | ongoing | |
| Export Market Development Grants | The scheme reimburses up to 50 per cent of eligible export promotion expenses above $5,000 (provided that the total expenses are at least $15,000) and provides up to eight grants to each eligible applicant. | ongoing |
TFES assists shippers to transport goods by sea, between Tasmania and the Australian mainland, to help reduce freight costs associated with sea transport. | ongoing | |
If your business is importing goods that you intend to directly export or incorporate in other exported goods, you may be eligible for exemptions on customs duty and GST. | ongoing | |
| Wine Export Grant | Wine businesses exporting to China, Hong Kong, Macau and/or the USA can now apply for up to AU$25,000 in Australian Government funding for 50 % of eligible export promotion activities. | 1 May 20 |
Incentives for new employees
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| Payroll tax rebate scheme for employing apprentices, trainees and youth employees | If you are a large company that pays payroll tax you may apply for a rebate if you employ an eligible apprentice, a trainee or a youth employee from 1 July 2017. | 30 Jun 19 |
| Payroll tax rebate scheme for apprentices and trainees | If you are a large company in the Building and Construction, Tourism, Hospitality or manufacturing industry that pays payroll tax you may apply for a rebate if you employ an eligible apprentice or trainee. | 30 Jun 21 |
| Regional Employment Trials | This is an Australian Government initiative to identify and co-fund new projects to help people experiencing barriers to employment. A grant pool of $1 million has been allocated specifically to North and North-West Tasmania | ongoing |
| Targeted Apprentice and Trainee Grant for Small Business program | Employers in the Building and Construction, Tourism, Hospitality and Manufacturing industries may be eligible for a subsidy of up to $5000 per new apprentice or trainee from 23 May 2018 onwards. | ongoing |
| Wage subsidies are available to employers who hire eligible job seekers including mature age, long-term unemployed, Indigenous, youth or parents | ongoing | |
| Youth Jobs PaTH |
Youth Jobs PaTH is a new, flexible program designed to prepare young people for work. It also encourages employers to trial a young person for a job by offering interns and financial incentives to reduce the cost of recruitment. | ongoing |
Training incentives
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| Job seekers who are interested in running a new small business may be eligible to participate in the NEIS, which provides accredited small business training. | ongoing |
Agribusiness
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AgriGrowth Loan Scheme | The scheme offers low interest loans to Tasmanian farm businesses and agri-food businesses. It will support projects that advance the government's Agrivision 2050 plan. | ongoing |
| Farm investment loans | You can apply for this loan to strengthen your farm business, take steps to access markets interstate or outside Australia and prepare for, manage through or recover from drought. | ongoing |
| DairyTas Small Project Grants Program | DairyTas invites applications that encourage dairy industry groups to plan, carry out and promote their own on-farm demonstration or extension project to improve the performance and profitability of dairy farms in their locality. Projects are eligible for grants of up to $10,000. | ongoing |
| Drought loans | The loan will assist farm business owners in eligible areas to prepare for, manage through and recover from drought. | ongoing |
| Fruit Fly Concessional Loan Scheme | Up to $4 million is available to offset the effects of the fruit fly event that occurred in Tasmania during 2018. | 30 Jun 19 |
| The On-farm Energy Audit and Capital Grant Program | The program is made up of two types of grants to assist farmers to reduce their energy charges. Program funding of $750 000 is available over three years from 2018/19 to 2020/21 with applications to remain open until the allocation for each financial year is fully committed. |
Tourism
| Heritage Places Renewal Loan Scheme (HPRLS) | Loans are available for refurbishing a property that facilitates tourism and business development opportunities, essential heritage conservation projects, developing a business or adapting a property to support a new business initiative that will grow the visitor economy. | 1 Jun 20 |
| Tourism Accommodation Refurbishment Loan Scheme (TARLS) | TARLS will provide low interest loans for tourism operators to lift the standard of their product or services. | 30 Jun 19 |
To support tourism businesses on the stunning West Coast of Tasmania, the RACT, in partnership with the Tasmanian Government, has established a loan fund to provide start-up, interest-free loans to eligible businesses. | ongoing |
Events Tasmania
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The program aims to deliver support to events around the state through a variety of grants, Touring grants, Championship grants, Marketing Tasmania grants and one-off assistance grants. | ongoing |
Arts
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Offers a wide range of funding programs to individuals and organisations at different times throughout the year | ongoing | |
The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body. Each year, they deliver funding for arts organisations and individual artists across the country. | ongoing | |
| Screen Tasmania | Funding and support through loans, grants and equity investments in the development, production and marketing of Tasmanian screen projects. | ongoing |
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
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| Advancing Renewables Program. | The program supports a broad range of projects that have the potential to lower the cost and increase the use of renewable energy technologies in Australia | ongoing |
| Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) | The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) co-finances or co-invests with renewable energy companies in low emissions and energy efficient technologies. | ongoing |
| Power$mart Businesses | This program will co-fund energy efficiency audits for priority business types such as commercial office spaces, retail tenancies and accommodation, and independent supermarkets. | Jun 20 |
Above listing of grants and funding sources is put together by Business Tasmania. We make every effort to provide accurate and up-to-date information. The business.gov.au grants and assistance page gives a comprehensive list of government grants.
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