COVID-19 Business Support

Business Support Information

Up To Date Information For Businesses Effected By Coronavirus.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Extended

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended until 30 September 2021.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

For all claims from the 1st of July 2021, employers must top up their employees’ wages to make sure they receive 80% of their wages (up to £2,500) for the hours they are on furlough. The caps are proportional to the hours not worked.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will be ending on the 30th of September 2021. Claims for September must be submitted by 14 October 2021 and any amendments must be made by the 28th of October 2021.

How It Will Work?

Employees can be furloughed full-time or they are able to work on a part-time basis and be furloughed for the rest of their usual working hours. Employers can furlough employees for any amount of time and any work pattern, while still being able to claim the grant for the hours not worked.

Wages for any hours worked will be paid by the employer as well as all employer National Insurance and employer pension contributions.

Who Is Eligible

For periods starting on or after the 1st of May 2021, you can claim for employees who were employed on the 2nd of March 2021.

*as long as you have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.*

You do not need to have previously claimed for an employee before the 2nd of March 2021 to claim for periods starting on or after the 1st of May 2021.

You do not need to have previously claimed for an employee before the 2nd of March 2021 to claim.

information updated 02.09.2021

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

You can claim the fifth grant if you think that your business profit will be impacted by Coronavirus (COVID-19) between the 1st of May 2021 and the 30th of September 2021.

Level of support

There are 2 levels of grant. HMRC will work out your grant amount based on how much your turnover is down after they have compared your 2 turnover figures.

If your turnover is down by 30% or more:

You will receive 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits up to £7,500.00

If your turnover is down by less than 30%:

You will receive 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits up to £2,850.00

Who can claim?

You can find out if you are able to claim for a SEISS grant by checking that you meet all of the criteria in the following stages (1, 2 and 3.)

Stage 1: Your trading status and when you must have traded

You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership.

You must also have traded in both tax years:

  • 2019 to 2020
  • 2020 to 2021

Stage 2: Tax returns and trading profits

You must have:

  • submitted your 2019 to 2020 tax return on or before the 2nd of March 2021
  • trading profits of no more than £50,000
  • trading profits at least equal to your non-trading income

If you’re not eligible based on the trading profits in your 2019 to 2020 return, HMRC will look back at previous years.

Stage 3: Deciding if you can claim

When you make your claim you must tell HMRC that you:

  • intend to keep trading in 2021 to 2022
  • reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits due to the impact of COVID-19 between the 1st of May 2021 and the 30th of September 2021

You can find out more in our blog here.

information updated 02.09.2021

Support For Small Business Owners

Additional restrictions grant

The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) exists to provides local councils with grant funding to support businesses that are severely impacted by restrictions. (That may or may not be in the business rates system.)

Local councils can determine which businesses to support and calculate the amount of funding provided by the ARG scheme.

Eligibility

Local councils have the freedom to determine the eligibility criteria for the ARG grants. However, the funding is intended to help businesses that are severely impacted by the restrictions.

Local councils are encouraged to support:

  • businesses from all sectors that may have been severely impacted by restrictions but are not eligible for the Restart Grant scheme, including those which do not pay business rates
  • businesses from sectors that remain closed or severely impacted by the extended restrictions, even if those businesses have already been in receipt of Restart Grants. This may include the travel and tourism sector, wedding industries, nightclubs, theatres, events industries, wholesalers, English language schools, breweries, freelance and mobile businesses including caterers, events, hair, beauty and wedding-related businesses

Businesses excluded from the fund

You cannot get funding if:

  • your business is in administration, insolvent or has been struck off the Companies House register
  • you have exceeded the permitted subsidy allowance

How to apply

Visit your local council’s website to find out how to apply.

You can find your local authority Here.

Business Rates Holiday For Retail, Hospitality And Leisure Businesses.

Support for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses that pay business rates in England is in place in the form of a payment holiday for the 2020 to 2021 tax year.

Eligibility

You are eligible for the business rates holiday if:

  • your business is based in England
  • your business is in the retail, hospitality and/or leisure sector

Properties that will benefit from the relief will be occupied properties that are wholly or mainly being used:

  • as shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues
  • for assembly and leisure
  • for hospitality, as hotels, guest & boarding premises or self-catering accommodation

How to access the scheme

There is no action required from you for you, however, local authorities may need to reissue your bill to provide this support. This will be done as soon as possible.

You can estimate the business rate charge using the business rates calculator.

Information updated 02.09.2021

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Coronavirus VAT Deferment

Support For Businesses By Deferring VAT Payments

Temporary changes to VAT payments due between the 20th of March 2020 and the 30th of June 2020 are now in place.

Update – The scheme which allowed for VAT payments falling due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 to be deferred until 31 March 2021 is to be extended to March 2022. 

You can find out more in our blog here.

To help businesses affected by the coronavirus a three-month VAT payment deferment was announced on the 20th March 2020. This means that over two million businesses can defer any VAT payments which were due to be paid between the 20th of March and 30th of June 2020.

There will be no interest or default surcharges due on deferred VAT and any payments which are deferred must be paid on or before 31 March 2021.

All VAT credits and refunds will be paid as normal during the period.

The deferral also applies to annual accounting advanced payments and payments on account, normally due on the last day of the second and third months in any VAT quarter for affected businesses. Consequently, payments on accounts that are due to be paid 31st March, 30th April, 31st May and 30th June can be deferred.

There is also help available to business whom are unable to pay their VAT from previous periods due to COVID-19. HMRC’s Time To Pay system has been enhanced and a dedicated helpline is available.

If you cannot pay your tax bill because of coronavirus then contact the HMRC coronavirus helpline on 0800 024 1222 as soon as possible.

Who Is Eligible?

Almost all UK businesses that pay VAT are eligible for the scheme. This includes foreign businesses with a UK VAT registration.

However, any businesses filing for B2C electronic services sales or using mini one-stop-shop returns (MOSS) are not included in the scheme. They will have to pay the VAT due as normal.

How To Access The Scheme

The VAT tax holiday will be automatic and taxpayers do not have to notify HMRC if they intend to take advantage of the payment deferment scheme. However, despite payments being deferred, VAT returns must still be submitted as normal on the date which they are due.

Direct Debit Payments

Despite the deferment scheme being automatic, businesses whom currently pay their VAT via direct debit must take action now.

HMRC have advised that they are unable to stop existing direct debit payments from going ahead.

Businesses must take immediate action and contact their banks to cancel the facility or can cancel it via on line banking if registered, otherwise the VAT will automatically be withdrawn.

MTD For VAT

HMRC has now postponed phase two of Making Tax Digital for VAT. This means that the new rules on maintaining digital links from original transaction to tax return will not be enforced until 1 April 2021. Businesses now have until their first VAT return period starting on or after 1 April 2021 to put digital links in place.

However, the regular VAT penalty regime for missing any Making Tax Digital obligations will still come into play on the 1st of April 2020 when the one-year soft-landing phase of MTD ended.

Information updated 01.12.2020

Self-assessment Time To Pay Service

Self Assessment customers can apply online to help spread the cost of their tax bill into monthly payments using the Time To Pay service (live from the 1st of October 2020).

Changes To The Threshold

The online payment plan service can be usually be used to set up payment instalments for tax liabilities up to £10,000. However, this year HMRC increased the threshold to £30,000 for Self Assessment taxpayers. This is to help ease any financial difficulties which customers are experiencing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

What Does It Mean?

Self Assessment customers can pay their:

  • deferred payment on account bill from July 2020
  • any outstanding tax owed for 2019 to 2020
  • their first payment on account bill for this current tax year

in monthly instalments, up to a period of 12 months, via the online Time To Pay tool.

How Does It Work?

Once a tax return for the 2019 to 2020 tax year has been submitted, any monies payable can be scheduled using the online self-serve Time to Pay facility through GOV.UK. This can be set up via direct debit and any tax that is owed can be paid in monthly instalments, up to a 12-month period.

Who Can Use Time To Pay?

Self-assessment taxpayers who want to set up their own self-serve Time to Pay arrangements must meet the following requirements:

  • there must be no:
    • outstanding tax returns
    • other tax debts
    • other HMRC payment plans set up
  • the debt must be between £32 and £30,000
  • the payment plan must be set up no later than 60 days after the due date of a debt

Any customers using the self-serve Time to Pay service will be charged interest on the tax owed which will be applied to any outstanding balance from the 1st of February 2021.

You can find out more in our blog here.

information updated 01.12.2020

Business Loans

Coronavirus recovery loan scheme

The Recovery Loan Scheme is to help businesses of any size access loans and other kinds of finance in order to recover after the coronavirus pandemic and transition period.

You can get up to £10 million, but the actual amount offered will be at the discretion of participating lenders. The government guarantees 80% of the finance to the lender, but you will still be responsible for your debt.

The scheme is open until the 31st of December 2021.

Who is eligible?

You can apply for a loan if your business:

  • is trading in the UK

You need to show that your business:

  • would be viable were it not for the pandemic
  • has been adversely impacted by the pandemic
  • is not in collective insolvency proceedings (unless your business is in the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol in which case different eligibility rules may apply)

Businesses from any sector can apply, except:

  • banks, building societies, insurers and reinsurers (but not insurance brokers)
  • public-sector bodies
  • state-funded primary and secondary schools

How to apply

You can find a lender accredited to offer Recovery Loans from the list on the British Business Bank website here.

Information updated 02.09.2021

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Our services also include secretarial support, payroll/CIS services, bookkeeping, VAT and company auditing.

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