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Financially impacted because of Coronvirus?
What is happening in the world and the UK is unprecedented. It is impacting everyone and businesses are being hit rather cruelly. The following provides some guidance as what to do to limit the impact on you, your business and your team.
Please note, The Square does not provide legal advice. The following information is provided as helpful guidance only. Please always get specialist advice from qualified advisors if in doubt.
Grants
The government is offering businesses in the retail, hospitality or leisure industry grants up to £25,000. For small businesses not in those industries and pay little or no business rates, the government is providing grants up to £10,000. These grants are being issued via local authorities and they will contact you directly in the coming weeks if you are eligible.
Click here to see if you are eligible or contact your local council.
Loans
Through the 'Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme', the government is providing 12 month interest free loans for business with turnover under £45m. These are being made available through banks so get in touch with your bank if a loan would help.
Reclaiming Statutory Sick Pay
If you pay Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to some of your employees that are off because of COVID-19, you can claim up to two weeks SSP back. Details of how to claim are yet to be released but there's more info here.
Mortgage Holiday
If keeping up with your bills and food on the table may be a challenge, speak to your bank or lender. Banks have recently agreed with the Chancellor that they will offer 'forbearance' (tolerance and help) on mortgages.
This means they all should offer those struggling a three-month 'holiday', allowing customers a temporary break from having to make mortgage payments during this difficult time.
VAT deferal
To help cashflow, the government has deferred VAT payments for businesses from 20 March 2020 until 30 June 2020. This is an automatic offer with no applications required. Businesses will not need to make a VAT payment during this period. Taxpayers will be given until the end of the 2020 to 2021 tax year to pay any liabilities that have accumulated during the deferral period.
More info on VAT and Income Tax Deferral here.
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, all UK employers will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis.
HMRC will reimburse 80% of workers wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. HMRC are working urgently to set up a system for reimbursement. Existing systems are not set up to facilitate payments to employers.
More info on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme here.
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If you or your team are self employed and are being impacted financially because of the Coronavirus, we've pulled together a few options available to you here. Hope it helps!