By AAT Comment CoronavirusCoronavirus help and information3 Mar 2021 The Government, agencies and private sector companies are co-operating to help British businesses through the challenges of the coronavirus. The Government has promised to do whatever it takes to get the country through the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis. This page will regularly be updated, summarising the help and support available to businesses and individuals, along with relevant details of eligibility and how to apply.2021 Budget measures£5 billion for new Restart Grants – a one off cash grant of up to £6,000 for non-essential retail businesses; and up to £18,000 for hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses in England.A new Recovery Loan Scheme will replace Bounce Back Loans, providing loans between £25,001 and £10 million, and asset and invoice finance between £1,000 and £10 million, to help businesses of all sizes through the next stage of recovery.Business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure to continue at 100% until June, then taper to 66%.Reduced VAT for support tourism and hospitality will continue at 5% until the end of June, then rising to 12.5% until 31 March 2022.The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will be continued until 30 September.Employer apprenticeship incentives will continue with payments doubled to £3,000.Businesses that invest during the next two years will be able to reduce their tax bill by 130%.Corporation tax will rise to 25% after two years, but with a tapering scale so only for companies making declaring profits of £250,000.WARNING – Do not merge the two bullet lists!Support for businessAreas for improvementSupport for workersInsuranceAdministrationNational variationsAAT announcementsLinks and resourcesSupport for businessRecovery Loan SchemeA new Recovery Loan Scheme will replace Bounce Back Loans, providing loans between £25,001 and £10 million, and asset and invoice finance between £1,000 and £10 million, to help businesses of all sizes through the next stage of recovery.Once received, the finance can be used for any legitimate business purpose, including growth and investment.The Government guarantees 80% of the finance to the lender to ensure they continue to have the confidence to lend to businesses.Restart GrantsThe 2021 budget allowed for £5 billion of new Restart Grants. These are one-off cash grants of up to £6,000 for non-essential retail businesses; or up to £18,000 for hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses in England.Grants to cover accountancy and other advisory fees£20 million of funding will be made available to businesses across England to help them get back on track.Small and medium-sized businesses in England can access grants between £1,000 – £5,000 for new equipment and technology and specialist advice, including accountancy feesThe funds will be dispensed through Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), via their growth hubs.Bounce Back Loan scheme for small business (closes 31 March 2021)On 27 April 2020 the Government announced a fast-track new loan scheme to allow small businesses to borrow up to 25% of turnover, up to a maximum of £50,000. This scheme will close on 31 March 2021.The loans will be interest-free for the first 12 months, and not subject to business liability tests or complex eligibility criteria. Applications will be made through a simple online form and no payments will be taken during the first year.More information.Make an application.Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (closes 31 March 2021)An emergency interest-free loan scheme was launched on Monday 23 March. This will be one of the fastest ways for cash-strapped businesses to access money in order to survive.Individual businesses will be able to apply for loans up to a maximum of £5 million. The Government will pay the interest for 12 months and will guarantee 80% of the loan.The scheme is organised through the British Business Bank and will be delivered through commercial banking partners. Several types of finance will be available:Term facilitiesOverdraftsInvoice finance facilitiesAsset finance facilitiesEligibility: any company with a turnover of up to £45 million can apply.To access: go to the British Business Bank website to get full details. The fastest approach will be to apply directly to one of the bank or finance companies that will supply the loans.Tax and VAT bills delayedPayment of key taxes will be automatically deferred to provide businesses with a further potential source of working capital.VAT – deferred automatically for three months from 20 March until 30 June 2020.Income Tax Self-Assessment – delayed for six months from 31 July 2020 will be deferred until the 31 January 2021.If businesses have collected these taxes, the Government says they can be used to meet immediate needs.HMRC Time to Pay serviceStruggling businesses and self-employed people can ask HMRC for more time to settle tax bills. The Government says businesses can use any money set aside for these liabilities as emergency working capital.Eligibility: decisions will be made case by case.To access: call the HMRC dedicated helpline.HMRC coronavirus helpline: 0800 0159 559.Business ratesA one-year business rates holiday was introduced for all businesses in England in the retail, hospitality and leisure sector. This meant lower bills from April 1 2020. The Chancellor announced in the 2021 Budget that the business rates holiday would continue until June, and would then taper to rebate of 66%.Use this business rates calculator to work out how much the business rate rebate could save.To access: this change will apply automatically from the next council tax bill in April 2020. However, some local authorities may have to reissue bills. £25,000 cash grants for retail, hospitality and leisureOn top of the business rates holidays, cash grants of up to £25,000 will be available for smaller businesses occupying retail, leisure and hospitality premises.Funds should be available sometime in April but exact timescales will depend on how quickly local authorities can respond.Eligibility: businesses must have a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000.To access: local authorities will write to businesses that meet the criteria. Enquire with your local authority to confirm the position.£10,000 grant for the smallest businessesApproximately 700,000 of the smallest businesses in England will be entitled to a one-off, non-repayable grant of £10,000.Eligibility: any businesses currently eligible for Small Business Rate Relief (SBBR) or Rural Rate Relief will qualify. Because the Government is building on existing schemes, these payments could be up and running in April.To access: apply for the emergency funding direct from their local authority.Support for workersCoronavirus Job Retention SchemeUnder the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Government pays a portion of the salaries of workers who remain on payroll but are temporarily not working during the coronavirus outbreak.The scheme was intended to close on 30 April 2021, but has been extended again until 30 September 2021.Under the latest extension, recipients will be paid for 80% of hours of work they lost due to the pandemic. Employers will pay a 10% contribution from July; followed by 20% in August and September.Employers must:designate affected employees as ‘furloughed workers,’inform the employee of their new statusthen inform HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and their earnings.The grant paid to the employer will be calculated based on the employees regular, contractual pay, such as wages, compulsory commission and past overtime.The calculation will not include discretionary commission (including tips) payments or bonuses, non-cash payments or benefits in kind.To access: Employers submit claims via an online portal.Agents authorised (with HMRC) to act on behalf of clients for PAYE matters, will be able to process claims on their clients’ behalf.File-only agents (non-authorised), including Payroll Bureaus, will not be able to access the service for data protection reasons.The information filers will be required to supply will include National Insurance number, salary, and pension contribution details.Knowledge Hub resourcesTemplate letter for furloughed employees (login required)Revised guide to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (login required)Self-employed Income Support SchemeThe Self Employment Income Support scheme has been extended to September 2021, with 600,000 more people who filed a tax return in 2019-20 now able to claim for the first time.People whose turnover has fallen by 30%or more will continue to receive full 80% grant.People whose turnover has fallen by less than 30% will get a 30% grant.Grant number four covers the period from February to April, and will be available to claim from April.The payment will be worth 80% of the three months’ average trading profits up to £7,500.Under the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, the Government is to pay self-employed people across the UK a taxable grant worth 80% of their average monthly profit. This will be calculated from up to three years of tax filings (if available), and be capped at £2,500 per month.Eligibility: individuals must show they:earn the majority of their income from self-employment or a partnership. earn no more than £50,000 trading profit in 2018-19 or an average trading profit of less than £50,000 from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.are adversely affected by the coronavirus crisis – by demonstrating some loss of income (as yet undefined).already be self-employed and have filed a 2018-19 tax return.Exclusions: those who pay themselves a salary and dividends through their own company are not covered by the scheme. The newly-self-employed will also miss out.Availability: payments should be received within 6 working days.Knowledge Hub Guide to the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (members)Prompt paymentNow is a time for prompt payment. AAT is a signatory of the Prompt Payment Code and has campaigned for best practice to be mandatory. We will be stepping up our efforts.Large businesses are signalling their determination to help small business creditors. Supermarket Morrisons has confirmed it will pay all suppliers with a turnover below £1m immediately, instead of between 14 and 30 days as was its standard practice.The Small Business Commissioner advises small businesses to ask for advance payments from large customers.Welfare benefitsUniversal credit has been boosted by £1000 a year during the coronavirus crisis. This benefit could provide a modest safety net to struggling self-employed people or workers who have been made redundant.Self-employed workers can claim income support if they need to self-isolate. They can claim immediately and will not have to satisfy the requirements of the minimum income floor.Hardship fundA £500 million hardship fund is to be made available through local authorities. This is a further source of funds for those without income, including the self-employed.Statutory sick payAny business with fewer than 250 employees will have the cost of providing 14 days of statutory sick pay (per employee) refunded by the government in full. It will also apply from day one rather than the usual day four of illness — even if individuals have no symptoms.This will help 2 million businesses by providing up to £2 billion to cover sick leave costs.See here for government guidance.Mortgage holidaysThe Government has negotiated with banks for a three-month mortgage holiday for individuals hit by the pandemic. There are no similar measures in view to help those in rented accommodation.AdministrationMaking Tax Digital end-to-end data delayedHMRC has postponed plans to require businesses to maintain end-to-end dynamic data in VAT records due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis. The requirement for linked data was to apply from 1 April.IR35 paused for 1 yearThe Government is delaying the IR35 scheme for off-payroll working by one year to ease the burden on business.Insolvency rules to be changedThe Business Secretary said the Government will change elements of the insolvency system to help UK companies keep trading. Details have not been given yet, but the main points are expected to be:A suspension of the wrongful trading rules.A moratorium period for struggling companies to put a rescue plan together.Safeguards for creditors and suppliers.Gender pay reportingThe enforcement of the gender pay gap reporting deadlines will be suspended for the current reporting year, 2019-20.AGM requirements relaxedThe requirement on companies to hold AGMs will be relaxed so health advice can be followed – either by holding them via video or postponing them. Preliminary results delayFinancial Conduct Authority (FCA) has asked firms about to report preliminary results to delay for at least two weeks so they can better assess how the pandemic will affect their business. The emergency bulletin can be read here. The FCA is in talks with the Financial Reporting Council and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) about a package of measures aimed at easing pressure on the audit profession and listed companies. The three bodies hope to announce details shortly.Companies HouseCompanies House has confirmed that any companies unable to file their accounts on time due to Covid-19, can make an application to extend the period allowed for filing by up to three months.On 17 April Companies House announced temporary relaxations to thestrike-off policy and late filing fines.InsuranceFor the vast majority of businesses, insurance cover is unlikely to mitigate their losses.The Association of British Insurers (ABI) issued a statement on 17 March 2020 which made clear that “…irrespective of whether or not the Government orders closure of a business, the vast majority of firms won’t have purchased cover that will enable them to claim on their insurance to compensate for their business being closed by Covid-19.”The ABI went on to explain, “…standard business interruption cover – the type the majority of businesses purchase – does not include forced closure by authorities as it is intended to respond to physical damage at the property which results in the business being unable to continue to trade.”National variationsScotland, Wales & Northern IrelandIn addition to the UK-wide support that is being provided, an extra £780 million for the Scottish Government, £475 million for the Welsh Government and £260 million for the Northern Ireland Executive was announced this week. Grants for small businessScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will make their own arrangements for small business emergency grants.Scotland has already announced an £80 million fund to provide grants of £3,000 to small businesses in sectors that suffer the worst economic impact of COVID-19, available via a helpline on 0300 303 0660.Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said, “We will do what is right to help businesses and individuals in every part of the UK… this additional funding will ensure the devolved administrations can support vulnerable people, businesses and vital public services, including the NHS, in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”He told a press conference “help is on its way” with the “announcement of new measures and more to come – businesses don’t need to rush into decisions”.Areas for improvementSick pay levelsWhilst the government has waived the usual seven-day wait for employment support allowance (ESA), and made statutory sick pay (SSP) available immediately, instead of after four days, critics argue ESA and SSP are both paid at very low rates. Indeed, SSP is £94.25 a week whereas average pre-tax earnings are over £500 a week. This means vulnerable workers required to self-isolate for 12 weeks will be at a huge financial disadvantage.Private landlordsConcerns have also been raised that the financial implications of Covid-19 may result in an increased number of evictions as people struggle to pay their rent. The Labour Party has called for a complete ban on evictions. Increased help to address this specific problem seems realistic, a complete ban seems doubtful.Medium-sized companiesMedium-sized firms say that they need more help. Some are too large for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, but financially not strong enough to secure credit on their own (BBC report).AAT announcementsAAT has closed its head office but is successfully running operations through its business continuity plan. See main site for all AAT’s announcements.AAT announcements and updatesAAT licensed accountantsAAT licensed accountants are reminded they must continue to ensure they have continuity of practice arrangements in place.Links and resourcesBusiness supportBusiness Support HelplineTo talk to someone about how different schemes can help your business, contact the Government’s Business Support Helpline for free adviceCall 0300 456 3565 Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.Find more details and helplines in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.HMRC helpGuide to Covid-19 assistanceGuidance for employers and businessesGuidance for employeeHMRC have additional helplines, including one set up to support businesses and self-employed people concerned about not being able to pay their tax due to coronavirus.Call 0800 0159 559. You can find more details about contacting HMRC online.Growth HubsBusinesses can find free support, advice and information on sources of finance through their local Growth Hub. Find your Growth hub here.Business organisationsInstitute of Directors offers advice and resourcesCBI works to support businessFederation of Small Businesses (FSB) asks whether the business continuity plan is up to dateInformation on healthcare advice for employers and support for businessesContinuity planningDevelop a business continuity plan and communicate well with employees and supply chain partners. Here’s an overview of what you need to do:How to plan for continuity in the face of the coronavirusSmall Business Commissioner – here’s what businesses need to doHow to stay solvent in the coronavirus crisisHealthSocial distancingForced closure of businessesWHO guidance on getting the workplace ready for Covid-19WHO on infection prevention and controlNumber of coronavirus cases and risk in the UK AAT Comment offers news and opinion on the world of business and finance from the Association of Accounting Technicians.