With the lockdown continuing and no definitive guide as to when things may be eased this continues to be a difficult time for everyone. We firstly hope that everyone and their families are safe and well.
The financial support announced by the Government is now starting to find its way to those that need it and below is a reminder of some of the support that is available. Full details of the available support packages have been detailed in previous correspondence but the Government have been announcing changes on a regular basis to ensure the support provided is being made available as intended.
If you need any assistance from anyone at RPG please do not hesitate to contact any member of the team. We are here to help in any way that we can.
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
The Government launched its online portal on Monday of this week to allow companies to start claiming grants under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Early indications are that whilst large numbers of claims are being processed the waiting time to access the site has not been as bad as first feared. The Government are confident that all properly submitted claims will be paid within six days.
Anyone who submitted a claim on Monday of this week should therefore start to receive payments in the next few days.
As a reminder, employers can now claim online for a grant of 80% of your furloughed employees’ salaries, up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee, per month. This scheme will be open until the end of June 2020.
If you have any questions on the job retention scheme please do contact us.
Government grants and loans
The Government have provided a number of measures to support businesses, these include:
- An automatic 12-month business rate holiday for all retail, hospitality, leisure and child nursery businesses in England.
- Small business grant funding of £10,000 for all businesses in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief grants.
- Grant funding of £25,000 in England for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000. Similar grant funding schemes are available for the rest of the UK.
- The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with cash flow pressures by providing access to bank lending and overdrafts. Loans of up to £5m are available for companies with turnover of less than £45m.
- The Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) to support large businesses, with an annual turnover of between £45 million and £500 million, to access loans of up to £25 million.
- A new lending facility from the Bank of England, the Covid Corporate Financing Facility, to help support larger firms.
- The Future Fund scheme to support innovative companies unable to access the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme by providing convertible government loans subject to at least equal matched funding from private investors
Self-employed income support scheme (SEISS)
Government support has also been announced for the self-employed. Self-employed individuals and members of partnerships can claim a taxable grant worth 80% of their average trading profits from the last three tax years, i.e. 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19. This is subject to a maximum of £2,500 per month for an initial three months.
The grant is only available where income has been lost due to the coronavirus outbreak. This will need to be confirmed to HMRC at the time of the claim and will be checked by HMRC using a normal risk-based approach.
The SEISS is intended to make payments by early June and claims will be backdated to March and paid in one instalment.
The grant will be taxable and subject to national insurance and will also be recognised as income for the purposes of universal credit and tax credits, but will not have to be repaid. Individuals can carry on working or take on other employment and still receive the grant.
Full details of how this scheme will be implemented have not yet been confirmed but we expect announcements in the near future. At present it is expected that HMRC will use submitted tax returns to assess eligible individuals and then contact all those that qualify asking them if they would like to make a claim.
Deferral of July 2020 payment on account
The second self-assessment payment on account for the 2019/20 tax year is deferred from 31 July 2020 to 31 January 2021. Please note that this is only a deferral, the payment will need to be made on 31 January 2021 along with any balancing payment for the year ended 5th April 2020 and the first payment on account for the 20/21 tax year.
This applies to all those required to make payments on account under self-assessment, including trustees.
The deferment applies automatically without the need to make an application.
VAT Deferral
The Government has announced that VAT payments for the period to 30 June 2020 can be deferred until the first quarter of 2021 with no interest or penalties charged. This is an automatic relief so no action is required other than remembering to cancel any direct debit that you may have set up. Please note that this deferral does not include import VAT.
We will continue to keep you updated with any changes that are announced during this period but if you do require any assistance or have any questions please contact your usual RPG contact.
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