Self Employed Scheme Phase 2 Claims Open from Today.

The SEISS Phase 2 Claim window opens today. Please find below a link to the government website where you can check eligibility, and claim for, the second SEISS payment. You should be able to check eligibility even if you have not been contacted by the HMRC since you received the first claim. If you were not eligible for the first claim, you will not be eligible for this one.

SEISS Website

This second claim will be for 70% of 3 months of their average income from 2016-19, capped at £6,570. This is expected to be the final payment under the scheme.

To be eligible you would need to:

  • Have traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year
  • Have traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
  • Intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
  • Were eligible for the first SEISS grant (even if you did not claim it)
  • Have had a trade which was still adversely affected by Coronavirus on or after 14th July 2020

Only people who’s self employed income is more than 50% of their total taxable income for the year are eligible.

Your business could be adversely affected by coronavirus if, for example:

  • You’re unable to work because you:
    • are shielding
    • are self-isolating
    • are on sick leave because of coronavirus
    • have caring responsibilities because of coronavirus
  • You’ve had to scale down or temporarily stop trading because:
    • your supply chain has been interrupted
    • you have fewer or no customers or clients
    • your staff are unable to come in to work

You should keep any evidence that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus at the time you made your claim, such as:

  • business accounts showing a reduction in turnover
  • confirmation of any coronavirus-related business loans you have received
  • dates your business had to close due to lockdown restrictions
  • dates you or your staff were unable to work due to coronavirus symptoms, shielding or caring responsibilities

You will need to report both grants:

The grant should be treated as income received on the day it’s paid for any Universal Credit claims or tax credit changes.

If any one has any questions please contact us and we will be happy to help.


Coronavirus: Self Employed Scheme Phase 2 Claims Open from 17th August

The government have announced further details on the extension to the SEISS (Self Employment Income Support Scheme) scheme for the self employed.

Initially the scheme allowed people to claim 80% of 3 months of their average income from 2016-19, capped at £7,500. This was to cover March – May 2020. The deadline for claims under the first stage of the scheme was 13th July 2020

The government have now announced that a second payment will be claimable in August to cover June, July and August. This will allow people to claim 70% of 3 months of their average income from 2016-19, capped at £6,570. This is expected to be the final payment under the scheme.

To be eligible you would need to:

  • Have traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year
  • Have traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
  • Intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
  • Were eligible for the first SEISS grant (even if you did not claim it)
  • Have had a trade which was still adversely affected by Coronavirus on or after 14th July 2020

Only people who’s self employed income is more than 50% of their total taxable income for the year are eligible.

Your business could be adversely affected by coronavirus if, for example:

  • You’re unable to work because you:
    • are shielding
    • are self-isolating
    • are on sick leave because of coronavirus
    • have caring responsibilities because of coronavirus
  • You’ve had to scale down or temporarily stop trading because:
    • your supply chain has been interrupted
    • you have fewer or no customers or clients
    • your staff are unable to come in to work

You should keep any evidence that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus at the time you made your claim, such as:

  • business accounts showing a reduction in turnover
  • confirmation of any coronavirus-related business loans you have received
  • dates your business had to close due to lockdown restrictions
  • dates you or your staff were unable to work due to coronavirus symptoms, shielding or caring responsibilities

You will need to report both grants:

The grant should be treated as income received on the day it’s paid for any Universal Credit claims or tax credit changes.

If any one has any questions please contact us and we will be happy to help.

Please find below a link to the new government website, which has more information

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-self-employment-income-support-scheme


Coronavirus: Self Employed Scheme Update June 2020

The government have announced further details on the extension to the SEISS (Self employment Income Support Scheme) scheme for the self employed.

Initially the scheme allowed people to claim 80% of 3 months of their average income from 2016-19, capped at £7,500. This was to cover March – May 2020. The deadline for claims under the first stage of the scheme is 13th July 2020

The government have now announced that a second payment will be claimable in August to cover June, July and August. This will allow people to claim 70% of 3 months of their average income from 2016-19, capped at £6,570. This is expected to be the final payment under the scheme.

To be eligible you would need to:

  • Have traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year
  • Have traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
  • Intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
  • Have had a trade which has been adversely affected by coronavirus

Your business could be adversely affected by coronavirus if, for example:

  • You’re unable to work because you:
    • are shielding
    • are self-isolating
    • are on sick leave because of coronavirus
    • have caring responsibilities because of coronavirus
  • You’ve had to scale down or temporarily stop trading because:
    • your supply chain has been interrupted
    • you have fewer or no customers or clients
    • your staff are unable to come in to work

Only people who’s self employed income is more than 50% of their total taxable income for the year are eligible.

If any one has any questions please contact us and we will be happy to help.

Please find below a link to the new government website, which has more information

www.gov.uk/coronavirus


Coronavirus: Furlough Scheme Update June 2020

The government have announced further details on the extension to the furlough scheme for employers. This includes the eventual subsidies employers will need to pay, as well as a new part time “Flexible Furlough” scheme.

How the Furlough Scheme Will Work Going Forward

For June and July the furlough scheme will remain unchanged, but flexible furloughing will come into effect in July.

From August, the government grant provided through the job retention scheme will be slowly tapered, so that employers pay part of the money to staff instead of the government. From the end of October the scheme will stop completely.

  • In June and July, the government will pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 as well as employer National Insurance (ER NICs) and pension contributions for the hours the employee doesn’t work – employers will have to pay employees for the hours they work
  • in August, the government will continue to pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 but employers will pay ER NICs and pension contributions. In other words, the same figures will go through payroll but employers will only be able to reclaim the salary costs from the government, not pension and ER NIC.
  • in September, the government will pay 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay ER NICs, pension contributions and 10% of wages to make up 80% of the total up to a cap of £2,500. In other words, the same figures (80%) will go through payroll but employers will only be able to reclaim 70% of salary costs from the government, and none of the pension and ER NIC.
  • in October, the government will pay 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay ER NICs, pension contributions and 20% of wages to make up 80% of the total up to a cap of £2,500. In other words, the same figures (80%) will go through payroll but employers will only be able to reclaim 60% of salary costs from the government, and none of the pension and ER NIC.

For flexible furloughing, the cap on the furlough grant will be proportional to the hours not worked.

If you are a smaller employer, some or all of your employer NIC bills will be covered by the Employment Allowance, so you should not be significantly impacted by that part of the tapering of the government contribution.

Flexible Furlough

Employers have expressed their issue with the current rules that workers can only be furloughed, or back at work, with no in-between or part time basis allowed. The government have reacted to that by introducing “Flexible Furlough” from 1st July.

From 1‌‌ July 2020, you’ll have the flexibility to bring previously furloughed employees back to work part-time – with the government continuing to pay 80% of wages for any of their normal hours they do not work up until the end of August.

You can decide the hours and shift patterns that your employees will work on their return and you will be responsible for paying their wages in full while working. This means that employees can work as much or as little as your business needs, with no minimum time that you can furlough staff for.

Any working hours arrangement that you agree with your employee must cover at least one week and be confirmed to the employee in writing. When claiming the CJRS grant for furloughed hours, you will need to report and claim for a minimum period of a week. You can choose to make claims for longer periods such as on monthly or two weekly cycles if you prefer. You will be required to submit data on the usual hours an employee would be expected to work in a claim period and actual hours worked.

If your employees are unable to return to work, or you do not have work for them to do, they can remain on furlough and you can continue to claim the grant for their full hours under the existing rules.

So as an example, Jane works 5 days a week 7 hours a day at £10 per hour (35 hour week) She works a lot of overtime so her furlough payments have been based on her average monthly pay 2019-20. Her employer is charged £5 per week in Employer NI. She is not in a pension scheme.

She comes back from furlough on 1st July to work 3 days a week instead of 5.

Jane’s employer would be able to pay her gross 3 days x 7 hours x £10 = £210

Her employer would then be able to claim 2/5th of her previous furlough claim for her wages, and 2/5th of her Employer’s NI.

We realise that this is somewhat complex. We will be able to calculate this for all of our clients, but you will need to keep note of your staff’s contracted hours, and hours worked – even if they are on a monthly salary, in order for us to make the claim for you.

If any one has any questions please contact us and we will be happy to help.

Please find below a link to the new government website, which has more information

www.gov.uk/coronavirus


Corona Support Update : Self Employed Grant, Bounce Back Loans and Local Top-Up Fund

We thought it would be helpful to let you know about some new support that is available from the government regarding Coronavirus, and more information regarding the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

The HMRC will be contacting people from this week regarding their eligibility for a pay out under this scheme. The details of the scheme have been previously explained on an earlier post. If they have your mobile phone details they may text you, or they could email or write to you by post, but they will only ever direct you to the gov.uk website - if you receive any messages with links to select, these may be scams.

If you have a Government Gateway account they may message you through this account. If you do not have an account you will not need to set one up to claim, just fill in an online form and provide proof of ID.

If you are not sure if you are eligible, or if they have the correct contact details for you, please use the below link to use their online tool to check. You will just need your UTR number (Unique Tax Reference number) and Ni number. This should be shown at the top of any letters from the HMRC about Self Assessment, or on the front page of your Self Assessment tax return.

Once you have used the tool it will give you the option to add up to date contact details, so that they can contact you more quickly.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme

They are expected to contact all Self employed people that they believe are eligible by the end of next week. When they contact you they will let you know what date you can apply. Dates start from 13th may. It is expected that you will get payment 6 working days after application, as long as there are no issues with your claim.

Agents are not allowed to make the claim, and have no access to your Government Gateway account, or even if you have a GG account. The government will calculate how much you are entitled to. Our clients have already been sent an estimate by us as to what we believe they will be offered under the rules

Bounce Back Business Loan Scheme

Due to the mixed reviews on the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the government have announced thsi new loan scheme aimed at businesses wanting to borrow £50,000 or less.

The scheme helps small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and up to 25% of their turnover. The maximum loan available is £50,000.

The government guarantees 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months. After 12 months the interest rate will be 2.5% a year. You can have the loan for up to 6 years, there is no penalty charges to pay it back early, and no payments are due in the first year.

11 lenders are supporting the loans. More details are on the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-coronavirus-bounce-back-loan

Top Up to Local Business Grants

A discretionary fund has been set up to accommodated certain small businesses previously outside the scope of the business grant funds scheme. On 2nd May it was announced that an extra £617m would be distributed to local councils to distribute as they saw fit. This additional fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs.

They are asking local authorities to prioritise businesses in shared spaces, regular market traders, small charity properties that would meet the criteria for Small Business Rates Relief, and bed and breakfasts that pay council tax rather than business rates. But local authorities may choose to make payments to other businesses based on local economic need. The allocation of funding will be at the discretion of local authorities.

Businesses must be small, under 50 employees, and they must also be able to demonstrate that they have seen a significant drop of income due to Coronavirus restriction measures.
There will be three levels of grant payments. The maximum will be £25,000. There will also be grants of £10,000. local authorities will have discretion to make payments of any amount under £10,000. It will be for councils to adapt this approach to local circumstances.

For more information on this we would suggest that you contact your local council. More details are on the below link.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/top-up-to-local-business-grant-funds-scheme

We’re Here To Support You

If you need any help or are worried about anything please get in touch and we will do all that we can to help and give advice. If you are not a client but are worried or need advice, please contact us and we will help you - Free of Charge 🙂

 

 


Coronavirus: Support for Businesses

We thought it would be helpful to summarise the support for businesses that is currently available from the government. More in-depth information is on previous posts on this website, or the government website – a link is at the bottom of this post.

Support for Employees

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

  • This is a grant – you will not have to pay this back. But you will have to pay tax and NI on it, and declare it if you are on benefits.
  • Any UK business with employees can claim, including charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities.
  • Covers full-time, part-time, agency and zero hour contract employees.
  • Employees can be furloughed on 80% of their wages (capped at £2,500 per month) for up to 3 months if they would otherwise be made redundant, as long as they do no work for their employer at all whilst furloughed.
  • Employers can “top up” the other 20% of the furlough pay but they don’t have to.
  • Employees already on unpaid leave cannot be furloughed. Employees on Sick Leave or self-isolating should get SSP, but can be furloughed after this.
  • If an employee is working but on reduced hours or reduced pay they are not eligible for the scheme.
  • They must be furloughed for a min, of 3 weeks and must be notified in writing. They can be brought back and then furloughed again if necessary.
  • Some staff can be furloughed whilst some still work. If staff have more than one job they can still work elsewhere or do volunteer work.
  • Company directors can be furloughed as long as they have stopped providing services or generating income.
  • Furlough money will be able to be reclaimed by employers from the HMRC from approx. the end of April through a new portal.

Support for Sole Traders, Partnerships & the Self Employed

Coronavirus Self-Employed Income Support Scheme

Who can claim and what you’ll get:

  • This is a grant – you will not have to pay this back. But you will have to declare it on tax returns and if you are on benefits.
  • The scheme will pay taxable grant payments to anyone who submitted a 2018-19 tax return and is still trading through to the 2020-21 tax year. On the return self-employment has to have been your main source of income, and you must have made a profit of less than £50,000 ( or it was if averaged over the last 3 yrs)
  • You will get 3 months’ pay of 80% of your average self-employed profit based on the last 3 years (or whatever period you were trading if it was less than this.)

The bad news:

  • If you were not self employed on 5th April 2019 or if you have stopped trading since 5th April 2019, or are about to, you cannot claim.
  • If you average profit was over £50,000 in the last 3 years, or if self-employment was not the main source of income on your return, you cannot claim.
  • The money will be paid in one lump sum for the 3 months, but not until June 2020 at the earliest.

The HMRC will contact people that are eligible and explain how to claim the money. This will not be for at least 4 weeks – so expected to start in May. They will not contact you by text or email – please be aware of fraudsters.

Loans For Businesses

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)

Good points:

  • Loans should be available for most small businesses with turnover under £45m interest free for at least 12 months – sole traders, partnerships or Ltd Cos.
  • Loans are backed by the government so personal collateral should not be required.
  • Loans should be available for businesses that would not have been eligible for help before.

Bad points:

  • Unlike the other support it will need to be paid back. The money is a loan. Any money owed over 12 months may have interest charged.
  • Loans must be for a business reason and cannot be used to pay personal living expenses etc.
  • Some banks are asking for personal or business assets as security – which is not as the government intended.
  • Some banks will offer you loans and overdrafts that they would normally have given you, at high interest rates, before they will offer you one of these loans.

If you have approached a bank and they have not offered you one of these loans, have asked for security or your own bank has been unhelpful, we would recommend trying another bank from the list of lenders. Full details of the scheme is on the British Business Bank website – see link below.

https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/ourpartners/coronavirus-business-interruption-loan-scheme-cbils-2/for-businesses-and-advisors/

Grants for those with Business Premises

The Retail and Hospitality Grant Scheme

  • This is a grant – you do not have to pay it back.
  • This 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.

If you are not sure if you get one of these bills, check your paperwork. Councils should be contacting businesses shortly about this money.

Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will also not have to pay rates for the 2020-21 tax year.

Small Business Grant Scheme

  • This is a grant – you do not have to pay it back.
  • The government will provide 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.

If you receive a rates bill from the council every year, but it is adjusted to zero with the wording “Small Business Rates Relief”, you should be eligible for the grant. This we think also applies to holiday lets as well as businesses with premises. It would not apply to those with a high enough rateable value that they have to pay rates, or for normal rental property businesses that are not holiday lets.

If you are not sure if you get one of these bills, check your paperwork. Councils should be contacting businesses shortly about this money.

Other Business Support Available

  • All businesses that are VAT registered can delay paying VAT due between 20th March and 30th June 2020. This will now be due next year. (VAT returns do still have to be submitted)
  • Any individual on Self Assessment can now delay payments on account due 31st July 2020, and not pay them until 31st January 2021.

Other Personal Support Available

  • Universal credits are available immediately without a wait and you can earn more money than before and still be eligible. The amounts awarded have also been increased, including the amount to cover rent.
  • Most banks and building societies have agreed to offer up to 3 months mortgage payment holidays
  • Anyone with a loan or HP agreement may also be able to get up to 3 month’s holiday from payments.
  • Anyone paying council tax who is in real hardship can apply to the council – the council may be able to use money provided to them to reduce your council tax bill in the short term.
  • If you pay council tax you may also be able to ask if you can delay your payments for the first 2 months of the new tax year, paying in Feb and March next year instead. As they usually collect only 10 payments a year some councils have agreed to this.

All of the different types of support that are available are confusing, and we have tried our best to summarise them in plain English. Further in depth information is available both on this website and the government website – please make sure you meet all of the criteria to receive any of the support packages offered. We would be happy to provide specific advice to anyone who needs it, whether you are a client or not, free of charge. Please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help. We all need to help each other right now.

Please find below a link to the new government website, which has more information about all of these support packages

www.businesssupport.gov.uk


Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme HMRC update 27/03/20

The HMRC have published more details on the above scheme, and how it will work.

The full details are on the link below but, in summary:

  • Any UK business with employees can claim, including charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities
  • You must have created and started a PAYE payroll scheme on or before 28th Feb 2020 and have a UK bank account
  • Any businesses still being paid with public money for staff costs cannot use the scheme.

Which Employees can be furloughed?

  • Full-time and part-time employees
  • Employees on agency contracts
  • Employees on flexible or zero hours contracts

What are the rules to furlough staff?

  • Employees must be told in writing that they have been furloughed, and the date it applies from. Employers need to get their agreement in writing to the furlough if it reduces the pay as per their employment contract. Evidence of this needs to be retained. A template letter attached at the bottom of this post.
  • Employees hired after 28th Feb 2020 cannot be furloughed.
  • Employees cannot undertake any work for the employer whilst on furlough. This includes providing services or generating income.
  • Company directors are eligible to claim their PAYE income, but only if as above they do not undertake any work whilst on furlough. This includes providing services or generating income.
  • If an employee is working but on reduced hours or reduced pay they are not eligible for the scheme.
  • You can just furlough some of your workers, but anyone furloughed cannot undertake any work.
  • Staff must be furloughed for a minimum of 3 weeks. If bought back to work, they can be furloughed again, but again the minimum is 3 weeks.
  • Employees already on unpaid leave cannot be furloughed, unless they were placed on leave after 28th Feb 2020.
  • Employees on Sick Leave or self-isolating should get SSP, but can be furloughed after this.
  • If your employee has more than 1 job they can be furloughed for each job separately i.e. they can be furloughed from one but continue working at another. Each job is separate and the cap applies to each job.
  • Furloughed employees can take part in volunteer work or training, as long as it does not provide services to, or generate income for, your business.
  • If workers are required to do online training, they can remain furloughed but would need to be paid in full for any time they took training.
  • Normal rules apply for Statutory Maternity Pay
  • All grant money paid to furloughed workers will be subject to income tax and National Insurance as usual. It will also have to be declared as income for those on benefits.

How Much can you Claim?

Employers will be able to claim the lower of 80% of an employee’s regular wage, or £2,500 per month plus the associated Employer NI and minimum Auto Enrolment employers contribution. Fees, commissions and bonuses must be excluded. For directors, it would be any amount put through PAYE – dividends are not included.

Employers may choose to “top up” the other 20% of salary, but they don’t have to.

This has been set up for 3 months from 1st March, but may be extended.

You can claim:

  • For salaried employees i.e. those on a set annual salary, their salary in February 2020 should be used to calculate the 80% (excluding fees, bonuses and commission)
  • For staff on hourly rates or with variable pay, you need to claim the higher of the same month’s pay from last year, or their average monthly earnings from the 2019-20 tax year
  • If an employee has been employed for less than 1 year, you can claim the average since they started work.
  • Once you have calculated this pay, you can then add the amount of relevant NI and pension contributions to this figure.
  • If you chose to “top up” to 100% of their salary you can only claim the NI and pension payments relating to the 80% grant.

In this situation, furloughed workers are not entitled to the National Living Wage or the National Minimum Wage as they are not working.

Full calculations of the claim made must be kept, and can be audited by the HMRC to ensure compliance with the rules.

How can you Claim?

  • The HMRC expect the new portal for claims to be open by late April. You will be able to claim by providing basic information regarding your payroll, and a bank account for payment
  • You will be able to submit a claim every 3 weeks (the minimum furlough period) Claims can be backdated to the period you stopped working (as far back as 1st March.)
  • Once your claim has been received and agreed, the HMRC will pay the money into your account via BACS
  • You must pay the employee all of the grant money you receive, and cannot charge them fees.
  • Any grant money received must be treated as income for accounting purposes, to offset the staff costs in the accounts.

When the current situation is over, and the scheme ends, you must decide whether to take back your workers or consider redundancy as per your usual terms.

Whilst employees are furloughed they maintain all of the same rights that they had previously including SSP, maternity rights etc.

Now that the rules have been released, we will re-calculate staff wages and will be completing claims for any of our clients that we run payroll for. If any other clients need help with this we will assist.

If anyone – client or not – needs help or advice please get in touch.

Guidance for Employees:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-could-be-covered-by-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

Template letter for furloughed workers:

Download Staff Furlough Letter

Coronavirus Self-Employed Income Support Scheme

The chancellor has announced today a new scheme that will be available to support Self Employed businesses affected by the Coronavirus

The scheme will pay taxable grant payments to anyone who:

Submitted a tax return with self employed income for the 2018-19 tax year and is still trading
On this return self employment was their main source of income
Made taxable profits of less than £50,000

What You Will Get:

The grant will consist of self employed people being paid 80% of the monthly average of their self employed profits over the last 3 years (2016-2019).
Individuals receiving the grant will not have to pay it back, but will have to pay tax on the income as per usual rules.
Everyone will be entitled to at least 3 months of this average profit
Mr Sunak mentioned that self employed people could still be trading to receive the money. This may need to be confirmed.
If individuals were not trading for the full 3 years, the period that they were trading will be used to work out the payment.

The bad news:

If you were not self-employed before 6th April 2019, you will not be eligible to claim on the scheme
If you earned profit of over £50,000 you will not be eligible.
Payments will not be available until at least June, although at this point the whole 3 months will be paid at once.

What process will there be to claim the money?

1The HMRC will contact people that are eligible
2They will ask you to fill in a short online form to claim. If you have an accountant you may need their help.
3They will then process the claim and pay the money directly into your bank account.
4This money will not be paid until June 2020.

The chancellor stated that any businesses struggling to wait until June for the payment could access the interest free business loans, or Universal Credit in the short term.

Further information regarding this and all other support available is on a new Business Support website – see below link. If anyone would like any advice please let us know and we would be happy to help.

https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/


Further Details on Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Our payroll software provider, Brightpay, has provided further details on the above scheme, and how it will work. Although not directly from the government, we feel that this is a reliable source of information. We will of course keep you updated when the government confirms this.

The full details are on the link below but, in summary:

Employers must designate affected employees as furloughed, and get the employee’s agreement if it will mean a reduction in pay, or if there is not a specific clause in their employment contract covering this issue.

The HMRC must be notified, with details of the workers and their pay, through an online portal (in the process of being set up now)

HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed workers wages costs, based on their February wages, up to a cap of £2,500 per person per month.

Employers may choose to “top up” the other 20% of salary, but they don’t have to.

This has been set up for 3 months from 1st March, but may be extended.

We will be completing claims for any of our clients that we run payroll for. If any other clients need help with this we will assist.

If anyone – client or not – needs help or advice please get in touch.


Coronavirus Support Business Loans Go Live

From today 40 main banks in the UK should start taking applications for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). Full details are on the British Business Bank website – link below.

Most small businesses should qualify for a loan, but details of how to apply, and who to approach, along with a list of the banks, is on the British Business Banking site.

They recommend contacting your own business bank first, and making sure you meet the basic criteria – below.

The list of lenders as of 10am 23/03/20 includes:

Bank of Ireland UK – Bank of Scotland – Barclays – Clydesdale Bank – Danske Bank – HSBC – Lloyds Bank – Metrobank – NatWest – Santander – Skipton business Finance – RBS – TSB – Ulsterbank

As previously announced, these loans will be interest free for 12 months. If you need any further help or advice, please let us know.