COVID-19 Support – Key updates
What help is available for businesses experiencing increases in costs or financial disruption
Due to further guidance being issued or clarification of eligibility we thought it would be useful to highlight some key points on schemes and help available to businesses:
- HM Treasury have confirmed that directors will be eligible for the Job Retention Scheme including sole directors. This will be on the basis that the director ceases all revenue generating activities and just carries out statutory duties.
- Temporary suspension of the wrongful trading rules backdated to 1st March 2020. This is in place to give business breathing space to access assistance from government schemes.
- Smaller firms have been finding it difficult accessing loans via the Coronavirus Business Loan Scheme. There were claims that banks were taking advantage of the situation and refusing funds to good businesses that were in financial crisis.
- On Thursday 2nd April the Chancellor announced changes to deal with issues that have arisen; these were:
o Applications will not be limited to those businesses refused loans on commercial terms.
o Banks will be banned from asking company owners to guarantee loans with personal assets; this is on borrowings of £250,000 or less.
o Larger firms will also be eligible for more help under the scheme
Ian Walker from our Corporate Finance team would be happy to discuss your options under the scheme.
- Some local authorities have issued application forms on their websites to capture key information on business that believe they are eligible for the £10,000 or £25,000 grants.
We strongly recommend businesses to check their local authority website for updates on access to this grant as the government website still states that your local authority will contact you if eligible.
- If your business pays its VAT liability by direct debit and you want to make use of the VAT payment deferral between 20th March 2020 to 30th June 2020 you will need to cancel your direct debit otherwise HMRC will continue to take the payment.
Please note that you still have to submit the VAT Returns as normal. Businesses that use the MOSS scheme are not covered by this scheme.
- The Working Times Regulations have been amended to give workers an entitlement to carry over four weeks of their annual leave if they are unable to take holiday because of coronavirus.
For further information on the above please visit the news section of our website or sign into our resources section.
Please also feel free to contact us if you have any questions or require assistance in any way.