The chancellor yesterday announced a raft of new support and lifelines for businesses, self-employed people and the British public who are affected by the Covid-19 situation.
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
All UK business are eligible.
HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed workers wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. This is a grant rather than a loan scheme.
You will need to designate affected employees as ‘furloughed workers,’ and notify your employees of this change.
You will need to discuss with your employees about becoming classified as furloughed workers. This would mean that they are kept on your payroll, rather than being laid off.
To qualify the employee should not undertake work for you while they are furloughed.
As the employer you can choose to fund the 20% difference, but do not have to.
If an employee’s salary is reduced as a result of these changes, they may be eligible for support through the welfare system, including Universal Credit.
Changing the status of employees remains subject to existing employment law and, depending on the employment contract, may be subject to negotiation.
We will submit information to HMRC about the employees that you have furloughed and their earnings through a new online portal, which should be launched shortly.
The government will pay grants to support as many jobs as required and the first grants are expected to be paid within weeks. The government is aiming to get it all done by the end of April.
The scheme will cover costs of wages backdated to March 1st and will be open for at least three months initially and extend for longer if necessary. There was no limit placed on the amount of funding to be made available for the scheme.
As soon as we know more about how to access the portal we will update you.
If you need to discuss who and how many staff to furlough, please just call or email.
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
This will now be interest free for 12 months rather than 6 months as he had previously mentioned. These loans will now be available from Monday.
VAT Deferral
All UK business are eligible and no application is needed.
The deferral will apply from 20 March 2020 until 30 June 2020.
This means no business will pay any VAT liability from now until the end of June and businesses will have to the end of the 2020/21 to repay those bills.
Tax Payments
If you’re self-employed, Income Tax payments due in July 2020 under the Self-Assessment system will be deferred to January 2021.
No penalties or interest for late payment will be charged in the deferral period.
More information regarding Sick Pay
The 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.
Employers should maintain records of staff absences and payments of SSP, but employees will not need to provide a GP fit note.
The government will work with employers over the coming months to set up the repayment mechanism for employers as soon as possible.
More information regarding Business Rates
Business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses
There will a business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England for the 2020 to 2021 tax year, to include, shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas, live music venues, hotels, guest & boarding premises and self-catering accommodation.
To obtain this holiday, there is no action for you. This will apply to your next council tax bill in April 2020 and you will be rebilled as soon as possible.
Cash grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses
The Retail and Hospitality Grant Scheme will provide 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.
To access the scheme you do not need to do anything. Your local authority will write to you if you are eligible for this grant.
Guidance for local authorities on the scheme will be provided shortly.
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 £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
• you are a business that occupies property
To access the scheme, you do not need to do anything. Your local authority will write to you if you are eligible for this grant.
Guidance for local authorities on the scheme will be provided shortly.
If you’re self-employed or not eligible for SSP
If you are not eligible for SSP – for example if you are self-employed or earning below the Lower Earnings Limit of £118 per week – and you have COVID-19 or are advised to stay at home, you can now more easily make a claim for Universal Credit or new style Employment and Support Allowance.
If you are eligible for new style Employment and Support Allowance, it will now be payable from day 1 of sickness, rather than day 8, if you have COVID-19 or are advised to stay at home.
These actions taken by the UK Government represent an unprecedented economic intervention to support the jobs and incomes of the British people.
Here at SRC-Time we are sure this will lead to lots of questions, but we are here to help and will working tirelessly to obtain all the information and let you know as soon as possible. We will help all our clients in every way possible to ensure we get all the available and required cash injections needed to sustain business as usual.
We will be uploading and emailing all relevant information as and when we are made aware and are here to help, so call or email us on 01273 326556 and info@src-time.co.uk
Here at SRC-Time, we will endeavour to keep you updated with all the latest information regarding financial aid at this testing time. Please note that the Government makes fresh announcements every day so please ensure that you have the latest information.
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