COVID-19 BUSINESS SUPPORT INFORMATION 

Government Information and Supporting Links

UPDATED 26.03.2020

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Self-Employed Income Support Scheme

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• The Government will pay self-employed individuals who have been adversely affected a taxable grant worth 80% of average of monthly profits over the last three years

• This will be worth up to £2,500 a month and open to people across the UK. It will be backdated to March 1 2020 and last for three months initially.

• The scheme will be open to those with a trading profit of less than £50,000 in 2018-19 or an average trading profit of less than £50,000 from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.

• To minimise fraud, only those already in self employment with a tax return for 2019 will be able eligible

• HMRC working on scheme and people will be able to access by the beginning of June

• HMRC will contact eligible businesses, they will be asked to fill in an online form and it will be paid direct into bank account

• To make sure that no-one who needs it misses out on support, anyone who missed the filing deadline in January has four weeks from today to submit their tax return

 

MORE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND ON THE GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS SUPPORT WEBSITE HERE

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Download our HELPSHEET HERE

 

 

 

UPDATED 20.03.2020

The latest measures announced include:

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• A Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

  • HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed (allowed or forced to be absent temporarily from work) workers’ wages costs

  • Up to £2,500 per month, per employee

  • Any UK business eligible, regardless of size

  • Staff will need to be designated as ‘furloughed workers’ on payroll, and HMRC are to open a new online portal

  • HMRC are working urgently on setting up a system to reimburse businesses, but have confirmed the existing systems are not set up to facilitate payments to employers

  • We are awaiting confirmation from HMRC about whether Directors who are on the payroll can be treated as employees

  • If we do your payroll, we will handle this for you and keep you updated individually

  • More details expected to be announced on 23rd March 2020.

 
 

• Deferring VAT Payments

  • A deferral from March 2020 until 30 June 2020 will apply, immediately. 

  • All VAT registered UK businesses are eligible

  • This will be automatic and the requirement to call the VAT or Coronavirus helpline is no longer required

  • You will have until the 5th April 2021 to make these payments to HMRC

  • Refunds and reclaims will be processed by HMRC as usual

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• Income Tax Deferral

  • For Income Tax self-assessment, payments due on 31st July 2020 will not need to be paid until 31st January 2021

  • All self-employed are eligible

  • No application is required, it’s automatic…don’t pay it

  • No penalties or interest for late payments will be charged in the deferral period

  • HMRC have also scaled up their ‘Time to Pay’ service for anybody struggling to pay, but this will be judged on a case by case basis

  • If you have missed a tax payment or you might miss your next payment due to COVID-19, please call HMRC’s dedicated helpline: 0800 0159 559

 
 

• Small Business Grant Funding of £10,000

  • The government will provide additional Small Business Grant Scheme funding for local authorities to support small businesses that already pay little or no business rates because of small business rate relief (SBBR), rural rate relief (RRR) and tapered relief

  • This will provide a one-off grant of £10,000 to eligible businesses to help meet their ongoing business costs

  • You are eligible if your business is in the UK, you’re a small business and already receive SBRR and/or RRR and you’re a business that occupies the property

  • You do not need to do anything to get the grant, HMRC will instruct the local authorities to get in touch with you

  • Find your local authority here: https://www.gov.uk/find-local-council

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• Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) offering loans for SMEs through the British Business Bank

  • The scheme will provide loans of up to £5m

  • These will be interest-free for 12 months, with the government paying the interest

  • You are eligible if your turnover is under £45 million per year and you meet the bank criteria for the loan

  • The applications are due to accepted from Monday morning

  • All major banks have confirmed they will offer the scheme on Monday 23rd March 2020.  Here’s the full list of the 40 accredited providers can be found here: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/ourpartners/coronavirus-business-interruption-loan-scheme-cbils/

  • This is anticipated to be very, very busy once the applications are open

 
 

• Other business rate support

  • Grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000

  • The occupied businesses should be mainly used as shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas, live music venues, leisure, hotels, guest and boarding premises and self-catering accommodation

  • A Business rates payment holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England for the 2020/21 tax year

  • This will be applied automatically

  • Calculate your business rates here: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-business-rates

 

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• A Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Relief Package for SME’s

  • Businesses can claim any SSP paid for sickness absence due to COVID-19

  • This will cover sickness up to 2 weeks

  • You must have less than 250 employees (as at 28 February 2020)

  • A GP note is not required but a self-obtained isolation note can be used.  The notes can be found here: https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19

  • Repayments to be confirmed over the next few months