With the increasing concern over the current coronavirus situation we wanted to assure that it's business as usual here at LBW Chartered Accountants.
Our culture and technology already provide the opportunity for all of our staff to work from home with very little disruption to your service. In the event of a lockdown situation, your service will continue as normal with the reduction of face to face meetings. Our telephone is cloud-based and therefore all of our staff will still be at the end of a telephone should you require them.
Our aim is to continue to communicate with you via regular updated newsletters with further support across our social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and our website. We aim to bring you up to date information as soon as we have it in a clear and concise manner.
Our office has been provided with extra sanitary products where possible. We are actively encouraging self-isolation should any member of staff feel they have any of the virus symptoms.
Again, due to our home working policy this means that staff may still be working while self-isolating, if they're well enough to do so.
We at LBW are also a business that operates in the SME market and can therefore understand your concerns and worries. We have therefore put together some strategic advice on how your business can plan and prepare in these uncertain times.
Please click below for useful tips and guidance.
A new temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), delivered by the British Business Bank, will launch in a matter of weeks to support businesses to access bank lending and overdrafts. The government will provide lenders with a guarantee of 80% on each loan (subject to a per-lender cap on claims) to give lenders further confidence in continuing to provide finance to SMEs. The government will not charge businesses or banks for this guarantee, and the Scheme will support loans of up to £5m (previously announced at £1.2m in the budget).
This new guarantee will initially support up to £330 billion of lending on top of current support offered through the British Business Bank. The new CBILS scheme will offer interest holidays of 6 months and is intended to be launched next week.
It will temporarily replace the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG), and operate in a similar way to EFG and be provided by the British Business Bank, but will offer more attractive terms for both businesses and lenders, with the aim of supporting the continued provision of finance to UK businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak.
To be eligible for support via CBILS, the small business must:
The Chancellor has further announced that in addition to the above support measures for businesses, individuals (households) facing financial difficulties due to Covid-19 will be supported by their lending institutions with at least a 3-month mortgage payments holiday.
Please see the below links for more information:
The government will provide an additional £2.2 billion funding for local authorities to support small businesses that already pay little or no Business Rates because of Small Business Rate Relief (SBBR).
This will provide a one-off grant of £10,000 (previously announced at £3,000 in the budget) to around 700,000 business currently eligible for SBRR or Rural Rate Relief, to help meet their ongoing business costs.
For a property with a rateable value of £15,000, this represents 2/3rd of their rateable value, or comparable to roughly 8 months of rent. This grant only applies to businesses in England as business rates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are set by their devolved administrations.
In response to the Prime Minister’s previous announcement to limit social contact in pubs and restaurants, the Chancellor has extended 100% business rates relief for 12 months for all businesses within the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors (this includes hotels, restaurants and coffee bars), regardless of size.
In addition, companies occupying properties with a rateable value of less than £51,000 will be eligible for a cash grant of up to £25,000.
Further details are expected within a few days. The discount that pubs receive on their business rates will increase from £1,000 to £5,000, as long as their rateable value is below £100,000 in England.
To find out the rateable value of your non-domestic property please use the below link:
https://www.gov.uk/correct-your-business-rates
Legislation will be enacted to allow small-and medium-sized businesses and employers to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for sickness absence due to COVID-19.
The eligibility criteria for the scheme will be as follows:
The government will be refunding direct to the employers once their system is all in place in the next few weeks/months. Temporarily, the employers (company) can pay the SSP to the director/ directors from the day they have to go to self-isolate themselves.
The Chancellor announced an increase in the Employment Allowance from £3,000 to £4,000 to protect small businesses from the rise in the minimum wage.
From next month companies will not have to pay Employer National Insurance Contributions on the first £4,000 of their annual bill.
Changes had already been announced that the Allowance is only available where from 6 April the Class 1 National Insurance bill of the business or charity was below £100,000 in the previous tax year.
You cannot claim the Employment Allowance from April 2020 if:
This includes connected companies
You may have recently received a generic notification from HMRC regarding the employment allowance. If we process your payroll and you meet the above eligibility, we will automatically process the claim and there is no action required from you.
Within the profession the commentary is that businesses who have used time to pay are receiving good support from HMRC.
Since HMRC has a set up a phone helpline to support businesses and self-employed people concerned about not being able to pay their tax due to coronavirus (COVID-19) last week, SME businesses have started getting support to delay payment of their VAT and PAYE liabilities. Some have reported that HMRC is not asking for or only requiring minimal evidence and extending their payment deadlines for the foreseeable future.
The helpline allows any business or self-employed individual who is concerned about paying their tax due to coronavirus to get practical help and advice.
If you run a business or are self-employed and are concerned about paying your tax due to coronavirus, you can call 0800 0159 559.
For those who are unable to pay due to coronavirus, HMRC will discuss your specific circumstances to explore:
Please see the following link for more details:
HM Treasury published guidance states:
Those who are not eligible for SSP, for example the self-employed or people earning below the Lower Earnings Limit of £118 per week, can now more easily make a claim for Universal Credit or Contributory Employment and Support Allowance:
Further information of how to apply for Universal Credit can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/apply-universal-credit
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