On Friday night the 20th March the Chancellor stood in 10 Downing Street and announced some new support for small businesses. There were some staggering announcements.
They can be summarised as…
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed (basically another word for redundant) workers wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per person per month. HMRC are working urgently to set up a system for reimbursement as currently their systems are not able to facilitate payments to employers. But this will be back dated to 1 March 2020.
VAT and Income Tax Deferral
You will not have to pay any VAT until at least 30 June 2020 and then any unpaid VAT must be paid by 5 April 2021.
The self-assessment tax payment you should be making on 31 July 2020 has been deferred until 31 January 2021.
To reiterate these are deferrals not write offs, so both the tax and the VAT will still be payable.
The Time to Pay helpline has fallen over a number of times this week and has been unable to cope, so this relief is something that was already happening in practice anyway.
Support for businesses through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
The interest free period on loans under this scheme was extended from 6 to 12 months.
Coronavirus Grants
Since my last email some of my clients have received letters from local councils informing them how to receive the grants that were announced earlier this week. If you need any help regarding this please get in touch.
Help For Self Employed
The chancellor introduced a suspension of the minimum income floor for the self-employed: self-employed people can now access, in full, Universal Credit at a rate equivalent to Statutory Sick Pay for employees
I personally think there will be some further announcements to help the self-employed but this is a start.
As far as we can see all the rest of the reliefs have stayed the same.
You can get full details of everything that is currently available to small businesses (basically loads of loans!) here…https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses
It is important to say that our role as INSURANCE BROKERS is changing over the coming weeks. We are here to support our clients and process compliance work as we always do but we are also here to support you regarding the Coronavirus and assisting you to access finance and grants were available.
Please contact us.