Firstly, we truly hope you, your families and your loved ones are well and staying safe during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Now that the Chancellor has announced all of the new measures being implemented across the business industry we wanted to share our Bedford Accountants no nonsense version of them to help you navigate through this difficult time. These measures are for businesses that have been affected by the coronavirus.

If you are self employed

If you had any self assessment payments due in July 2020, these will be deferred until January 2021. If you are still able to pay your payment on 31st July, then you should do. There are no penalties or interest of late payments, this is an automatic scheme.

If you missed the January deadline to submit your self assessment tax return, this has now been extended for 4 weeks to allow HMRC to include you in the new scheme. If you need help submitting please get in touch with us

The Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will support self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) who have lost income due to coronavirus (COVID-19). This scheme will allow you to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 per month for the next 3 months. This may be extended if needed. This scheme is said to be available from early June and HMRC will contact you if you qualify. You need to have filed a self assessment tax return for the tax year 18/19.

Unfortunately, if you didn’t submit a self assessment tax return (i.e. you are recently self employed) for the year 18/19 then you will not have access to this scheme. You may qualify for support with universal credit, more information can be found here

If you are VAT registered

If you’re a UK VAT registered business and have a VAT payment due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020, you have the option to:

  • Defer the payment until a later date
  • Pay the VAT due as normal

You do not need to tell HMRC that you are deferring your VAT payment.

If you pay your VAT by direct debit you need to contact your bank to cancel your direct debit.

If you are a UK employer that had created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before 28th Feb 2020.

Employers can claim for 80% of furloughed employees’ (employees on a leave of absence) usual monthly wage costs, up to £2,500 a month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that wage. Employers can use this scheme anytime during this period.

If you are a Director on PAYE

You are classed as an employer and the above will apply to you too. 

If you are in the following industries: retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England

You will receive a business rates holiday for the 2020/2021 tax year. If your business fits into this category, you do not need to do anything. The local authority may re-issue your bill to provide this support. More information on eligibility for this scheme can be found here.

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. Businesses in these sectors with a property that has a rateable value of up to £15,000 may be eligible for a grant of £10,000. Businesses in these sectors with a property that has a rateable value of over £15,000 and less than £51,000 may be eligible for a grant of £25,000. Your local authority will contact you if you qualify for this grant.

Other support

The temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme supports SMEs with access to loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance of up to £5 million and for up to 6 years. The government will also make a Business Interruption Payment to cover the first 12 months of interest payments and any lender-levied fees, so smaller businesses will benefit from no upfront costs and lower initial repayments. The government will provide lenders with a guarantee of 80% on each loan (subject to pre-lender cap on claims) to give lenders further confidence in continuing to provide finance to SMEs. Your business needs to be UK based with a turnover of no more than £45million per annum. All banks are offering this scheme, in the first instance contact your bank or apply online.

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.

All non-financial companies that meet the criteria set out on the Bank of England’s website are eligible.