Additional grant funding made available for small businesses
The Government has made available grant funding for businesses that share working spaces and which therefore miss out on existing coronavirus support schemes.
The local authority discretionary grant fund is worth £617 million in total.
This additional fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs. Local authorities have been asked to prioritise businesses in shared spaces, regular market traders, small charity properties that would meet the criteria for Small Business Rates Relief, and bed and breakfasts that pay council tax rather than business rates. Local authorities may, however, choose to make payments to other businesses based on local economic need. The allocation of funding will be at the discretion of local authorities.
To be eligible businesses must have under 50 employees and must be able to demonstrate that they have seen a significant drop in income due to Coronavirus restriction measures.
There will be three levels of grant payments. The maximum will be £25,000. There will also be grants of £10,000. Local authorities will have the discretion to make payments of any amount under £10,000. It will be for councils to adapt this approach to local circumstances.
Further guidance for local authorities will be issued shortly.
HMRC have begun the roll out of the Self Employment Income Support Scheme
HMRC will this week start contacting people who may be eligible for the new Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
If eligible, this scheme will allow an individual to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of their trading profits up to a maximum of £7,500.
An eligibility checker has been launched by HMRC and this can be accessed by clicking here
We will notify all of our clients that are eligible to make a claim and who should expect to receive a notification from HMRC. Whilst we are able to check eligibility we are not able to process the claim on your behalf. We will, however, be happy to assist you with making a claim if required.
If you are eligible and do not receive a notification from HMRC please do let us know. HMRC have confirmed that they will review all cases from 18th May in the event that someone believes they are eligible but HMRC records indicate otherwise.
Bounce Back Loans
The application process for Bounce Back Loans went live yesterday and we have been helping clients complete applications. One of the qualifying criteria of being able to apply for a loan is that the business is not classed as a “business in difficulty”.
A business is considered in difficulty if any of the following criteria is met on 31 December 2019:
- Individuals or companies that have entered into collective insolvency proceedings;
- Limited companies which have accumulated losses greater than half of their share capital in their last annual accounts (this does not apply to SMEs less than 3 years old );
- Partnerships, limited partnerships or unlimited liability companies which have accumulated losses greater than half of their capital in their latest annual accounts (this does not apply to SMEs less than 3 years old);
- Where the undertaking has received rescue aid and has not yet reimbursed the loan or terminated the guarantee, or has received restructuring aid and is still subject to a restructuring plan;
- A company which is not an SME where for each of the last two accounting years: i) your book debt to equity ratio has been greater than 7.5, and ii) your EBITDA interest coverage ratio has been below 1.0
If you require any assistance with applying for a Bounce Back loan, please do let us know.
VAT – Direct Debit cancellation
As a reminder, you can currently enjoy a VAT payment holiday for the period up to 30 June 2020. This is an automatic relief, all that is required is that your normal direct debit is cancelled so that payments are not made automatically. Please note that this is only a payment holiday, a VAT return still needs to be submitted within the required time frame. Please ensure you have cancelled your direct debit before any payment falls due as HMRC will still collect the payment if a direct debit payment is made.
Scam emails, calls and texts
We are aware of an increase in scam emails, calls and texts claiming to be from HMRC. If anyone gets in touch with you claiming to be from HMRC, saying that financial help can be claimed or that a tax refund is owed, and asks you to click on a link or to give information such as your name, credit card or bank details, you should not respond. It is a scam. Any financial support from HMRC can only claim through www.GOV.UK – it is the only service that HMRC will use.
Suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC should be reported to HMRC by sending them to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk. Texts should be sent to 60599.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with your usual RPG contact.
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