20 Mar COVID-19 – Update, March 20

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced today a combination of measures that will help protect jobs and support the self-employed.

Stand by your employees

Firstly, the Government announced they will step in to help pay employees wages through a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Businesses can apply for a grant of up to £2,500 a month to cover 80% of the salary of those retained but not working. This scheme will be eligible for any employer in the county whether large or small, charitable or non-profit.

The first employment grants are expected within weeks with the aim to be available from the end of April and will be available through HM Revenue & Customs.

Considering many people due to be paid over the coming weeks, the interim solution to making salaries may be to apply for the Government backed loans and grants earlier in the week.  The business loan scheme which was announced earlier in the week will be available from Monday and will now be interest free for 12 months not 6 months.  These will be provided through lenders and the first point of contact will be your normal business bank.  Demand for these are expected to be high and lending criteria will apply.

Taxes

The chancellor also announced he is deferring the next VAT quarter payment for all businesses until the end of June, with repayment of any deferred VAT payments due by the end of the year.

Self-assessment income tax payments on account due on 31 July 2020 will be deferred until 31 January 2021.

Mr Sunak announced that Universal credit allowance increases £1,000 a year and will be available to the self-employed at a rate equivalent to statutory sick pay.

We would like to advise clients to only take up tax deferral options if it necessary as this will just delay the debt further.  The team at Infinity will be able to assist you with cashflow models and forecasting.

Staying up to date

The above are developments which have only just been released tonight and we will continue to monitor these over the weekend and provide more details as and when we have them.

Our ethos at Infinity has always been that we are not just your accountants, but we are your partners in business and in these difficult times this has never been more important.  We want to assure you all that we are doing everything we can to help you and should you have any question, big or small, please get in touch, we are here to help.

Please connect with our team on LinkedIn and Twitter using the following links.

Simon Cowie – Managing Director – https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-cowie-ab36714b/

Greg Houston – Associate Director – https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-houston-95900a42/

Mark Rhynas – Tax Manager – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-rhynas-att-1712265b/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/InfinityABDN