Coronavirus Covid-19 Self Employed Update (1st June 2020)
SEISS And Furlough Schemes Extension & Phasing Out Plan
The latest announcement from the Chancellor laying out his plans for the Furlough Scheme and SEISS included details on what would be expected from employers in terms of furlough payment contributions, additional fund being made available to qualifying SEISS claimants and when the schemes would come to an end.
Furlough Scheme Update
- The furlough scheme will continue to pay employers 80% of employees’ wages up to £2,500, with no employer contribution, until August 2020.
- From August 2020, employers’ will be expected to cover employee national insurance and employer contributions
- From September 2020, the government contribution will drop to 70%, meaning employers will have to contribute 10% of wages
- From October 2020, the government contribution will drop to 60%, meaning employers will have to contribute 20% of wages.
- From November 2020, the Furlough Scheme will be closed and employers will be expected to honour employees’ contracts and re-commence full payment of salaries and all associated employee costs.
SEISS Update
- The SEISS has been extended further, with Sunak announcing a second grant payment being made available to eligible self-employed workers.
- The scheme will open for applications in August 2020.
- The payment will be reduced from 80% to 70% of average monthly trading profits.
- The payment will be one lump sum, covering 3 months’ average trading profits up to £6,570.
- Claimants do not have to have claimed the first SEISS grant in order to be eligible for this final handout.
Coronavirus Covid-19 Self Employed Update (1st May 2020)
Bounce Back Loan (BBLS) Key Questions Answered
Business owners will be able to apply from 9am on Monday 4th
You can borrow up to 25% of your turnover up to a maximum of £50,000. Minimum loan of £2,000.
A. There is no forward-looking test on viability for the BBLS
You can borrow up to 25% of your turnover up to a maximum of £50,000. Minimum loan of £2,000.
Not necessarily, as there will be a quick, standard form to complete
There are no fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months
There are no payments to be made in the first 12 months
A. You can’t claim under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) as well under BBLS. However, if you have already received a loan of up to £50,000 under CBILS you have until 4th November 2020 to arrange with the lender to transfer it to the BBLS
A. The loans will come through the 40 or so accredited lenders.
A. Loans will be up to 6 years
The Government are still in talks with the lenders regarding a low rate of interest to be applied.
Loans should arrive within 24 hours of approval
No, it is 100% Government backed.
Eligibility
Your business is eligible for the Bounce Back Loan if:
- It is a UK-based business
- It has been negatively affected by the coronavirus issue
- It was not an ‘undertaking in difficulty’ as at 31st December 2019
Coronavirus Covid-19 Self Employed Update (27th March 2020)
The Chancellor has now announced new measures specifically designed to support the self employed during the coronavirus crisis. HMRC has published a press release and also preliminary guidance on the matter and the main headlines are:
- The support will be 80% of monthly profits, averaged over three years 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19
- It will be capped at £2,500 per month for three months (ie, up to £7,500 in total), but this may be extended
- It is only available if average annual taxable earnings are below £50,000
The majority of income has to be from self-employment - Unlike furloughed employees, the individual can continue to operate the business
- Those who started self-employment after 5 April 2019 are excluded
- HMRC will contact those eligible
- HMRC is allowing those who have yet to file their tax return for 2018/19, which was due on 31 January 2020, an additional four weeks to file and get up to date
- The scheme will be available from the beginning of June 2020, effectively back-dated three months to 1 March 2020, and paid in one lump sum.
Coronavirus Covid-19 Business Update (23rd March 2020)
Last week, the Chancellor went significantly further than in the history of this great country, with a series of unprecedented announcements in the Government’s support of businesses, employees and individuals.
The range of measures for UK businesses is significant and now includes the following:
- A Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- Deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
- A Statutory Sick Pay relief package for SMEs
- A 12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England
- Small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief
- Grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
- The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans of up to £5 million for SMEs through the British Business Bank
- A new lending facility from the Bank of England to help support liquidity among larger firms, helping them bridge coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through loans
- The HMRC Time To Pay Scheme
- Insurance coverage
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme all UK employers will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis.
Eligibility – All UK businesses are eligible.
How to access the scheme – You will need to:
- Designate affected employees as ‘furloughed workers,’ and notify your employees of this change – changing the status of employees remains subject to existing employment law and, depending on the employment contract, may be subject to negotiation.
- Submit information to HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and their earnings through a new online portal (HMRC will set out further details on the information required).
HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed workers wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month per employee. HMRC are working urgently to set up a system for reimbursement. Existing systems are not set up to facilitate payments to employers.
Deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
The Government has announced that HMRC will allow you to defer Value Added Tax (VAT) payments for 3 months. The deferral period will apply from 20 March 2020 until 30 June 2020.
Additionally, if you are self-employed, Income Tax payments due in July 2020 under the Self-Assessment system will be deferred to January 2021.
- VAT Deferral. All UK businesses registered for VAT are eligible. This is an automatic offer with no applications required. Businesses will not need to make a VAT payment during this period. Taxpayers will be given until the end of the 2020-21 tax year to pay any liabilities that have accumulated during the deferral period. VAT refunds and reclaims will be paid by the government as normal.
- Income Tax. For Income Tax Self-Assessment, payments due on the 31 July 2020 will be deferred until the 31 January 2021. If you are self-employed you are eligible. This is an automatic offer with no applications required.
Support for businesses who are paying sick pay to employees
HMRC are bringing forward legislation to allow small-and medium-sized businesses and employers to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for sickness absence due to COVID-19.
The eligibility criteria for the scheme will be as follows:
- This refund will cover up to 2 weeks’ SSP per eligible employee who has been off work because of COVID-19
- Employers with fewer than 250 employees will be eligible – the size of an employer will be determined by the number of people they employed as of 28 February 2020
- Employers will be able to reclaim expenditure for any employee who has claimed SSP (according to the new eligibility criteria) as a result of COVID-19
- Employers should maintain records of staff absences and payments of SSP, but employees will not need to provide a GP fit note. If evidence is required by an employer, those with symptoms of coronavirus can get an isolation note from NHS 111 online and those who live with someone that has symptoms can get a note from the NHS website
- Eligible period for the scheme will commence the day after the regulations on the extension of SSP to those staying at home comes into force
- The government will work with employers over the coming months to set up the repayment mechanism for employers as soon as possible
- You are eligible for the scheme if your business is UK based, small or medium-sized and employs fewer than 250 employees as of 28 February 2020.
A rebate scheme is being developed. Further details will be provided in due course once the legalisation has passed.
Support for businesses that pay business rates
The government is introducing a business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England for the 2020-21 tax year. Businesses that received the retail discount in the 2019-20 tax year will be rebilled by their local authority as soon as possible.
You are eligible for the business rates holiday if your business is based in England and your business is in the retail, hospitality and/or leisure sector.
Properties that will benefit from the relief will be occupied premises that are wholly or mainly being used:
- As shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues;
- For assembly and leisure;
- As hotels, guest & boarding premises and self-catering accommodation.
There is no action that you need to take. The relief will apply to your next council tax bill in April 2020. However, local authorities may have to reissue your bill automatically to exclude the business rate charge. They will do this as soon as possible.
Cash grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses
The Retail and Hospitality Grant Scheme provides businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors with a cash grant of up to £25,000 per property. For businesses in these sectors with a rateable value of under £15,000, they will receive a grant of £10,000. For businesses in these sectors with a rateable value of between £15,001 and £51,000, they will receive a grant of £25,000.
You are eligible for the grant if your business is based in England and your business is in the retail, hospitality and/or leisure sector. Properties that will benefit from the relief will be occupied premises that are wholly or mainly being used:
- As shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues;
- For assembly and leisure;
- As hotels, guest and boarding premises and self-catering accommodation.
There is no action you need to take. Your local authority will write to you if you are eligible for this grant.
Support for businesses that pay little or no business rates
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 up to £10,000 to eligible businesses to help meet their ongoing business costs.
You are eligible if your business is based in England; you are a small business and already receive SBBR and/or RRR and you are a business that occupies property.
You do not need to do anything. Your local authority will write to you if you are eligible for this grant. Any enquiries on eligibility for, or provision of, the reliefs and grants should be directed to the relevant local authority.
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
The new temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered by the British Business Bank, will launch early week beginning 23 March 2020, to support primarily small and medium-sized businesses to access bank lending and overdrafts.
The government will provide lenders with a guarantee of 80% on each loan (subject to a per-lender cap on claims) to give lenders further confidence in continuing to provide finance to SMEs. The government will not charge businesses or banks for this guarantee, and the Scheme will support loans of up to £5 million in value.
Businesses can access the first 12 months of that finance interest free, as government will cover the first 12 months of interest payments.
You are eligible for the scheme if: your business is UK based, with turnover of no more than £45 million per year and your business meets the other British Business Bank eligibility criteria.
The full rules of the Scheme and the list of accredited lenders is available on the British Business Bank website. All the major banks will offer the Scheme once it has launched. There are 40 accredited providers in all.
Support for larger firms – the COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility
Under the new COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility, the Bank of England will buy short term debt from larger companies. This will support your company if it has been affected by a short-term funding squeeze and allow you to finance your short-term liabilities. It will also support corporate finance markets overall and ease the supply of credit to all firms. All UK businesses are eligible.
The scheme is available now. More information is available from the Bank of England.
Support for businesses paying tax: Time to Pay service
All businesses and self-employed people in financial distress, and with outstanding tax liabilities, may be eligible to receive support with their tax affairs through HMRC’s Time To Pay service.
These arrangements are agreed on a case-by-case basis and are tailored to individual circumstances and liabilities.
You are eligible if your business pays tax to the UK government and has outstanding tax liabilities.
Insurance
Businesses that have cover for both pandemics and government-ordered closure should be covered, as the government and insurance industry confirmed on 17 March 2020 that advice to avoid pubs, theatres etc is sufficient to make a claim as long as all other terms and conditions are met.
Insurance policies differ significantly, so businesses are encouraged to check the terms and conditions of their specific policy and contact their providers. Most businesses are unlikely to be covered, as standard business interruption insurance policies are dependent on damage to property and will exclude pandemics.