Coronavirus Business Support

These are testing times not just for people in general but business owners as well. We've set out what is available to businesses during this pandemic and we will continue to support your businesses and you in any way we can. The support from the government is set out below:

1. Self Employed or Limited Company with no premises or premises over rateable value of £15,000
2. Small Business Grant of £10k for every business that is in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief
3. Grant funding of £25k for retail, hospitality and leisure business with property with a rateable value between £15k - £51k
4. Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans up to £5m
5. Coronavirus job retention scheme
6. Deferment of VAT and Income Tax payments
7. Statutory Sick pay relief for SMEs
8. 12 month Business Rate Holiday for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value of between £15k - £51k
9.  HMRC Time to pay scheme to be extended

Self Employed or Limited Company with no premises or premises over rateable value of £15k

There is currently no grant funding or assistance with the self employed or a Limited company with no premises or office from home. Jonathan Kirkup has written a letter to his local MP about the situation. I suggest if you are affected to do the same you can find you local MP by clicking here. 

Grants for Businesses that pay have premises but pay little or no business rates   

This grant provides £10k for businesses with a premises with a rateable value of £15k or under. Your business needs to be based in England, in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief. You don’t need to do anything as you receive information from your local authority. Any queries with this you may need to contact your local authority. Find your local authority 

Grants for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Businesses

This grant provides £25k for businesses with a premises with a rateable value of £15,001 to £51,000. Any businesses with premises with a rateable value of £15k and under will receive a £10k grant. To apply for the grant you do not need to do anything this will be administered by your local authority.

Corona Virus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

This loan is to support SMEs up to £5 million in value. The government will provide lenders of an 80% guarantee on each loan to give lenders further confidence to provide loans to SMEs. The finance can be provided by way of overdrafts, term loans, asset finance or invoice finance. Interest and fees will be paid by the government for 12 months this includes interest and lender levied fees. Finance terms are up to 6 years for term loans and asset finance and invoice finance up to 3 years.

Please contact your usual finance or banking provider. If they are not on the CBILS approved lender scheme please check here.

To be eligible for this you need to be based in the UK with a turnover under £45m and have a borrowing proposal were it not for the current pandemic it would be considered viable for a current lender. The lender would need to see that the loan would sort any short-medium term difficulty.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

All UK employers and UK Businesses are eligible. Any employees that would be otherwise have been laid off during the crisis. This will allow businesses to continue to pay their staff that would had of been laid off during the crisis.

You will need to:

• Designate the affected workers as “furloughed” (Grant leave of absence) workers and notify employees of this change.
• Submit information to HMRC about the employees that have been “furloughed” and earnings through a new online portal (Awaiting more information).

HMRC will reimburse 80% of workers that are classed as “furloughed” up to £2500 per month.

More Info

 Business Rate support for businesses in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure industry

Businesses that receive a retail discount in 2019-2020 tax year will be rebilled by their local authority. If your business is based in England and is in the retail, hospitality or leisure sector you will qualify. This includes shops, restaurants, cafes, pubs, cinemas, live entertainment venues, hotels and self catering accomodation. You do not need to apply for the scheme this will be done automatically by your local authority.

Deferment of VAT and Income Tax Payments

VAT

Deferral of VAT apply from 20^th March 2020 till 30^th June 2020. So this means any VAT Return with a period ended during this period will be deferred and payment can be delayed until March 2021.

This will be done automatically by HMRC and you need not apply.

Income Tax Payments

Self Assessment payments that had payments due on the 31^st July 2020 will be deferred until 31^st January 2021. You will be eligible if you are self employed, however it is unclear whether this includes Directors.

This will be done automatically by HMRC and you need not apply. HMRC have also extended their “Time to Pay” scheme and this will be on offer during this time.

Paying Sick Pay to Employees

Small and Medium sized businesses that are UK based will be eligible to reclaim back Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in relation to Corona Virus (COVID-19) illness. Some target points about the scheme are:

• The refund will cover up to 2 weeks SSP per eligible employee that has been off because of COVID-19.
• Employers up to 250 employees as at 28^th February 2020 are eligible.
• Employers can reclaim expenditure for any employee who has claimed SSP relating to COVID-19.  
• Employers will need to keep records of sick days and payments of SSP but the employee will not need a Doctors Fit note. If evidence is required by the employer the employee will need to access a isolation note from 111 online or if they live with someone that has the COVID-19 symptoms.

The scheme has not been created as of yet so any company will need to await further instructions from HMRC.

HMRC Time to pay scheme

Businesses in financial distress and are experiencing difficulties paying outstanding tax with HMRC maybe eligible with your tax affairs. These arrangements are on a case by case basis. If you are struggling to meet your next HMRC payment due to COVID-19 please contact the dedicated helpline on 08000159559.