With the recent 2020 Budget and now daily announcements regarding Coronavirus Government assistance, we want to take a proactive approach by providing you with a useful resource of links to assist you and your business.
LAST UPDATE 06/05/20 – Bounce Back Loan is live and SEISS (Self-employed support)
RPP and Coronavirus
In these uncertain times we wanted to let all our clients know we are here to offer support and guidance over the next few months.
Health and wellbeing are the most important things right now and so we have made the decision that some of our staff will be working remotely from 18 March.
We will continue to complete your accounts, VAT, payroll, tax returns and any other accountancy/taxation matters in a timely manner.
If you and your people are working remotely and/or struggling to keep your records straight then please let us know. We can install a variety of Cloud-based solutions to help and if you can scan and email documents to us we can help in posting them.
If you need anything let us know. Our business depends on your business and we must all pull together during the next few weeks.
Here is a quick action plan to help focus your thoughts:
- Keep your eye on Government advice on Coronavirus here.
- Your main purpose is to protect the health of yourself, employees and customers and then reduce the risk of the financial impact to your business. So you need to take action now.
- Talk to us – we are all in this together.
2020 Budget
The 2020 budget contained several announcements and the ACCA have produced these guides:
- 2020 Budget – has been edited to include the IR35 (off-payroll working rules) delay
- 2020/21 Allowances and Rates
- ACCA more in depth analysis – we would recommend you read this if you require a greater understanding on anything
To find a summary of the tax facts from the 2020 budget for the 2020/21 tax year, please download these 2 PDFs
Coronavirus Government Assistance
Daily announcements are being made due to the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) to support both business, employees and individuals further to the announcements in the 2020 Budget. Rather than regurgitate information that can become very quickly out of date this page will aim to provide links to relevant HMRC and Government content as a resource.
You can sign up to Government e-mail alerts on an instant, once a day or once a week basis
Full Guidance on staying at home and away from others found here
As an employer we would recommend you read both the support for business and support for employees sections:
- Home Page for the below
- Coronavirus what you and your employees need to know
- Support for business includes the following:
- Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- Deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
- Deferring Self-Assessment payments on account
- Self-employment Income Support Scheme
- Paying sick pay to employees
- Support for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses that pay business rates
- Business rate support
- Support for businesses that pay little or no business rates
- Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
- Support for larger firms through the COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility
- Time to Pay service
- Commercial insurance
- Protection from eviction for commercial tenants
- Extension of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) arrangements
- Support for businesses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Support for employees includes the following:
- Poster to display
Business Loan Support
This section includes useful information in order to assist with how to obtain business loan support due to the Coronavirus.
- Details on the Scheme
- Frequent Asked Questions about the Business Interruption Loan Scheme
- Eligibility
- How to Apply
There is now a new Loan called the “Bounce Back Loan” that has been launched with more details found hereyou can apply for loans up to £50k provided that this is no more than 25% of your turnover.
Help for Self-Employed
The Government has announced the Self-employed Support Scheme will be live from 13 May, it took them a little longer to devise the scheme due to the complexities for those self-employed not getting regular income. It is important to understand that the term self-employed does not apply to those who work via a limited company, but they are covered through the furlough rules.
We cannot apply for you. We would therefore recommend that you set up a personal tax account now or check you can access the system, so that you are ready to complete this once it goes live.
For guidance please refer to the below:
- Self-employed help
Furlough Guidance
The Job Retention Scheme launched on 20 April. HMRC have also changed the date so that you can consider all employees employed up to 19 March. Further furlough resources can be found below. You should always consider obtaining the necessary employment law advice before undertaking any employment matters.
HMRC FURLOUGH CALCULATOR FOUND HERE
- Latest Furlough Guidance from 2020 – 6 April 2020
- ICAEW further guidance on furlough
- ACAS Furlough Guidance
Furlough letters
- Furlough an employee
- Extend furlough
- End Furlough
- Withdraw redundancy and offer furlough
- Deny Furlough
Coronavirus Government Assistance – things to consider
It is important to note that some of this support includes the deferral of paying taxation or loans. You should be aware that you will still need to repay these down the line and factor this into your planning. You may wish to consider:
- Placing the money into a separate account to earn interest
- Paying over some of the money on a monthly basis
- Paying this amount over to HMRC – if you think you will be fine
- For those who are self-employed or require a tax return, knowing your tax liability will be vitally important as your 31 Jan 2021 tax payment could be sizeable
Other Resources
Scams
Please be careful and watch out for Scams, the ACCA have produced this article.
Assistance
If you require any assistance or further information contained please contact us. A member of our team will be happy to help.