Coronavirus Support
Following on from the updated Government guidance on working from home, we have taken the decision to close our offices and to work from home again. We will be opening our offices once a week for paperwork drop off sessions which you can find out more about by clicking here.
Currently, we are facing some difficult times ahead of us, but we are here to help you through it. We are going to be keeping this page as up to date as we can with news from the Government and any advice that we have for you. If you have any questions or queries on this then you can fill in the form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can sign up to our mailing list by going here, to get updates straight into your inbox. We are also going to use this page to keep you up to date with what we are doing as a company.
Support for businesses
The Government have released various measures to help businesses through this period of interruption caused by COVID-19. These measures Include (If you are looking for Self-employed specific click here):
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Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
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The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended to September 2021.
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The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is a scheme that has been set up to help employers to pay their employees and keep them employed. You can claim a percentage of your employees' wages in the form of a taxable grant from the Government. We have detailed everything about the scheme here
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Deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
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All VAT payments between 20th March 2020 and 30th June 2020 have been automatically deferred for all VAT registered businesses. As this is automatic you do not have to inform HMRC about this. If you have a Direct Debit in place for your VAT payments, you will need to cancel this with your bank as this will still be taken if it is in place. Any VAT payments deferred will be due by March 2021. You will now also have the option to pay through the New Payment Scheme meaning you are able to pay back the VAT in smaller instalments.
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Tax Cuts
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The Government have announced a 15% VAT cut for the tourism and hospitality sectors from 15th July 2020 until the end of March 2021. This is going to help a lot of businesses with cash flow issues. This has now been extended until September 2021 and then an interim rate of 12.5% will be available from 1st October 2021 until 31st March 2021. Jack talks about this in the video above.
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Statutory Sick Pay relief package for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs)
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The Government will be reimbursing businesses for any COVID-19 related sickness for up to two weeks. This sick pay will also be paid from day 1 instead of the normal day 3 (after 3 waiting days).
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12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality, leisure and nursery businesses in England
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Bounce Back Loan scheme offering loans from £2,000 to £50,000.
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The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months. Loan terms will be up to 10 years. No repayments will be due during the first 12 months. The government will work with lenders to agree on a low rate of interest for the remaining period of the loan.
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The new lending facility from the Bank of England to help support liquidity among larger firms, helping them bridge coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through loans
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Applications for the Bounce Back loan will close on 31st March 2021
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HMRC Time To Pay Scheme
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If you are unable to pay any of your taxes to HMRC they have set up a scheme where you can defer and set up a payment plan for money owed to them. You can call them on 0800 024 1222.
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Further Business Grants
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Restart Grant - If you watch the video above, you will be able to find out about the grants available in April 2021.
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You can find out about these grants in Portsmouth, by going here.
We have only summarised this as it is changing daily on the governments website
Here at Revis & Co, we are trying to help our clients as much as we can. We are going to do everything possible to ensure that our clients make it through this tough time caused by COVID-19. We are going to be doing the following:
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Free advice to our existing clients
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Advice and support on all the grants available from the Government
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Free cash flow forecasting software for all our QuickBooks Online clients
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One to one meetings (online)
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Free webinars on our YouTube Channel
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Update videos on our YouTube Channel
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Application of Grants where applicable
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We have also put together a guide on Furloughed Workers which you can find here
Support for Self Employed
The Government have released a few measures to help the Self Employed. These are as follows:
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Self-employment income Support Scheme (SEISS)
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You are able to claim Universal Credit. As long as you meet the usual eligibility criteria
To support you with the economic impact of the outbreak, and allow you to follow government guidance on self-isolation and social distancing, from 6 April the requirements of the Minimum Income Floor will be temporarily relaxed. This change will apply to all Universal Credit claimants and will last for the duration of the outbreak.
New claimants will not need to attend the jobcentre to demonstrate gainful self-employment.
They have announced the Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). This scheme will support self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) whose income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19. The scheme will provide a grant to the self-employed individuals or partnerships, worth 80% of their profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month, similar to the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme. Claims for this first payment must be made before the 13th of July.
HMRC will use the average profits from tax returns submitted in 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 to calculate the size of the grant. The scheme will be open to those where the majority of their income comes from self-employment and who have profits of less than £50,000. The scheme, like all over schemes will be open for an initial 3 months with people able to make their first claim by the beginning of June 2020.
The government have announced another payment available for the self-employed. This fourth payment will be a taxable grant worth 80% of your average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering a further 3 months’ worth of profits, and capped at £7,500 in total. This is expected to be paid out at the end of April 2021.
A fifth grant has also been announced covering May 2021 until September 2021. The amounts you will receive depends on how much your profits have reduced in the 2020 - 2021 tax year. Jack talks all about this in the video shown above.
To be eligible for the scheme you must meet all the criteria below:
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Be self-employed or a member of a partnership
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Have lost trading profits due to COVID-19
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File a tax return for 2018-19 as self-employed or a member of a trading partnership. Those who have not yet filed for 2018-19 will have an additional 4 weeks from 26/03/2020 to do so
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Have traded in 2019-20; be currently trading at the point of application (or would be except for COVID 19) and intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
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Have trading profits of less than £50,000 and more than half of your total income come from self-employment? This can be with reference to at least one of the following conditions:
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Your trading profits and total income in 2018/19
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Your average trading profits and total income across up to the three years between 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19.
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As mentioned above, HMRC will use existing information that they hold about you to check whether or not you are eligible for the grant. If they determine that you are in fact eligible they will contact you directly and ask you to fill out some forms. Once approved the grant will be paid directly to your bank account. These first grants have now been paid out.
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