Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Other Assistance for Businesses
Post Author:
Anne Melville
Date Posted:
March 21, 2020
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We are waking up this morning trying to get our heads around yesterday’s announcements and what they actually mean for businesses. We do expect more detail on Monday and throughout the week, but we thought we would try and put some information together today as you all try to digest the news. We are getting a lot of calls and emails from our self-employed clients, but we await more announcements at the start of the week to clarify the position. We know that this frustrating and information is not coming through quickly enough, but we will keep you up to date with any developments as soon as we hear anything further.
So far we have had the rates announcements:
https://jsca.co.uk/support-for-businesses-that-pay-business-rates/
https://jsca.co.uk/support-for-businesses-that-pay-little-or-no-business-rates/
We have also had announcements about the Coronavirus business interruption loans which we hope will be available for roll out next week.
Banks are putting short term overdraft facilities in place quite quickly and there are other borrowing facilities coming on to the market. Please get in touch to discuss these options further.
Support for businesses through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
This has been introduced so that all UK employers, including charities, can access support to continue to pay part of their employees’ salaries for staff who would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis.
HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed workers’ wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. A furloughed worker is kept on the payroll rather than being laid off. To qualify for this scheme, the employee should not undertake work for you while they are furloughed. The employee still remains employed while furloughed and the employer could choose to fund the difference between this payment and the employee salary but does not have to.
It is understood the wage subsidy will apply to firms where businesses have already had to lay off workers due to the crisis, as long as they are brought back into the workforce and instead granted a leave of absence, but we are awaiting confirmation of this.
Unfortunately, we do not have full detail on how this will work as yet but a new HMRC online portal is being built to facilitate the claims. We are already getting calls going into specific queries and we hope that by Monday, when we should get more information, we will be better placed to answer all of these.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme runs from 1 March 2020 for 3 months but could be extended.
Support for business through deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
VAT
All VAT payments have been deferred by three months; this applies from 20 March 2020 until 30 June 2020.
You do not need to apply for this, it is an automatic offer and you will be given until 5 April 2021 to pay any liabilities that have accumulated during the deferral period.
Income Tax
Income tax Self-Assessment payments due on 31 July 2020 have been deferred until 31 January 2021. This now applies to ALL Self-Assessment taxpayers and not just the self-employed.
Again, this is an automatic offer and there will be no penalties or interest charged in the deferral period.
Please keep checking our website for the latest news as we will be updating this frequently.
https://jsca.co.uk/category/coronavirus/
Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash
The information in this blog provides only an overview of HMRC guidance and legislation in force at the date of publication and no action should be taken without consulting the detailed HMRC guidance and legislation or seeking professional advice. Therefore no responsibility for loss occasioned by any person acting or refraining from action as a result of the material contained in this blog can be accepted by the firm.
