Covid-19: Business Support – Government Support
As Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic continues to affect businesses across the UK, we wanted to take a time out to pull together a set of articles to put some helpful information, handy links and little tips together to help your business through this evolving situation.
Covid-19: Business Support Article 1 – Government Support
Covid-19: Business Support Article 2 – Devolved Government Support
Covid-19: Business Support Article 3 – Supporting Your Team
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), has been launched to help businesses whose cash flow has been affected during the crisis. CBILS has been put in place to help businesses continue to finance their business and purchases for their business throughout this period where their cash flow may have taken a hit.
Aimed at SMEs with annual turnover less than £45m, they will provide businesses access to Asset Finance, Invoice Finance, Overdrafts and Loans of up to £5m.
Working with a selection of our finders we will be able to access these for our clients, with terms up to five years and interest covered over the first 12 months through the British Business Bank. As with any finance agreement offered the borrower remains 100% liable for the debt.
You can read more about CBILS in our separate website article here and get the full overview of CBILS on the British Business Bank website here.
Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme
To help support larger businesses through the pandemic, the government have put the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme in place.
This will allow banks to issue loans of up to £25m to businesses with an annual turnover of between £45m to £500m. This scheme is to be offered through commercial lenders who will be provided with an 80% guarantee on individual loans.
if you feel your business could benefit from this scheme, you can check your eligibility and find more information here.
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Regardless of size or sector, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is available to all UK businesses.
Applicable to employees who would be otherwise laid off due to the crisis, this scheme gives you the chance to reclaim up to 80% of the staff members wages up to a cost of £2,500 an employee.
In this instance you would be putting their jobs on Furlough (Putting them temporarily on hold), helping them retain their jobs and return when they can.
HMRC are currently updating systems so you can put this in place. But you will have to let your employees know their status is Furloughed, then update HMRC once the online portal is up and running.
Self-Employed Income Support Scheme
The government have launched this scheme to help self-employed & partnerships with a grant of 80% of earnings up to £2,500 per month.
This amount will be worked out by the HMRC calculating the average profits from the last three tax returns submitted (2016-17/2017-18/2018-19).
A tax return for 2018-19 needs to be filled for this, but if you haven’t done this already the government has given an additional four weeks from 26 March to do so. Once completed you do not need to contact HMRC about this scheme. Once it is operational, the HMRC will use the information they have to check who is eligible and reach out as soon as it is up and running.
The scheme is expected to begin paying out in June 2020 and to be eligible more than half of your total income must be from self-employment and have trading profits of less than £50,000.
If you are affected in the meantime before this pays out, the government have advised you to apply for universal credit if you are unable to work due to Covid-19. Find out more here.
Reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
This refund will cover two weeks’ worth of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for Covid-19 per eligible employee.
UK businesses with fewer than 250 employees as of 28th February 2020 are eligible for this.
Employees should keep a record of staff absences for best practice but will not need a GP note on record.
You do not need to apply for this. The government will work with employers to set up a method of repayment with details announced soon.
Deferred VAT and Income Tax
VAT payments are being deferred automatically for all UK businesses from the 20th March to 30th June 2020 – you will not need to make a payment during this period.
VAT will accumulate during this period, but you will have until the end of the 2020/21 tax year to make this payment.
Self-employed self-assessment tax payments due 31st July 2020 will now be due 31st January 2021, again this is automatic, and you don’t need to apply.
If you have any outstanding tax liabilities that you are struggling to make because of Covid-19. The HMRC Time to Pay scheme could help. You can call their helpline on 0800 0159 559.
Keep an eye out for our further Covid-19 business information articles coming later this week.
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