As we all continue to live our life in ways we never anticipated, we wanted to offer our support during this challenging time.

As you are no doubt aware, we are seeing changes daily in how the Government are working hard to support us all. This is both on personal safety and also financial advice as well as support to help businesses through this unprecedented time.   

We are committed to keeping you up to date on any new developments that may affect you and therefore below have provided you some guidance which you may feel is beneficial.

Government Grants

All local authorities have said they will get in contact with those eligible for the grants, however some local authorities have set-up an online application process in order to speed the process up. We understand that we have clients all over the country however we have put a link to those local authorities close to where we are based and will hopefully be useful for the majority of our clients. If your local authority isn’t listed below then please either wait until they contact you or search for your own local authority online.

York City Council- https://www.york.gov.uk/COVIDBusinessGrant

Leeds City Council- https://forms.leeds.gov.uk/SmallBusinessGrants/

Bradford City Council – https://www.bradford.gov.uk/business/help-for-businesses/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-business/

In order to apply you will need:

• a business rates reference number of your company
• a name on a non-domestic rates account for your business
• bank account details for your business
• a company registration number (if a limited company otherwise leave this box blank)

It is our understanding that most local authorities have started processing the grant applications. However, funding has not been made available to them from the government yet, so there may be a delay between the application being accepted and the grant being transferred.

Please click here to be directed to the official guidance document regarding these grants.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme/Furloughed workers

We understand that directors of limited companies will be able to furlough themselves, as long as they only undertake necessary statutory duties. They will not be able to carry out any actual work whilst furloughed. We are still waiting for this to be confirmed by either the government or HMRC and therefore it is subject to change. The minimum period that someone can be furloughed is 3 continuous weeks.

We have also had it confirmed that employees that have been furloughed will still be accruing annual leave as they would be if they were actually at work.

The law has been changed so that employees can carry up to four weeks annual leave over to their next holiday year. This has been designed to ensure that once the pandemic is over it prevents businesses facing a shortfall in employees due to them all taking their annual leave allowance before they lose it. This will also give employers more scope to be able to deny employees annual leave requests on those grounds.

HMRC have announced the initial information that they will require in order for employers to claim reimbursement through the portal for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, please see these listed below:

• Your PAYE reference number
• The number of employees being furloughed
• The claim period (start and end date)
• Amount claimed (per the minimum length of furloughing)
• Your bank details (account number and sort code)
• Your name
• Your telephone number

It is likely that they will request additional information before the portal goes live. HMRC will retain the right to retrospectively audit all aspects of claims.

Self employed

We would like to highlight a few points on this as we are aware that it may affect many of our clients.  The HMRC are going to contact those that are eligible to claim. Therefore, as it stands, if you think you are eligible to claim then there isn’t anything that you can or need to do at this stage, just wait until HMRC contact you. The following points were announced last week:

• Self-employed people will be able to apply for a grant worth 80% of their average monthly profits over the last three years, up to £2,500 a month.
• At least half their income needs to have come from self-employment as registered on the 2018-19 tax return filed in January – anyone who missed the filing deadline has four weeks from yesterday to get it done and still qualify.
• The scheme is open to those who earn under £50,000 a year (total income, not just self-employment income)
• Unlike the employee scheme, the self-employed can continue to work as they receive support.
• The money, backdated to March, will arrive directly into people’s banks accounts directly from HMRC, but not until June. This is subject to change and Rishi Sunak said that it may be earlier if they could get everything set up before then, but as ever there is also a chance that if could be later if they suffer any problems or issues. 
• The grants will be taxable, and will need to be declared on 2020/21 tax returns that have to be filed to HMRC by the end of January 2022.
• HMRC would be getting in touch with those that are eligible and therefore you don’t need to do anything until that time.
• Company owners who pay themselves a dividend are not covered.
• The scheme does not cover those who became self-employed very recently. It is understood to be those that registered as self-employed within the last year, who did not have not complete a 2018-2019 tax return, however this will be something that will be clarified once the full information has been published.
• Please click here to see the information as stated on the governments website.

Insolvency rule change to protect UK businesses
On Saturday Alok Sharma, the UK business secretary, announced new insolvency measures to prevent businesses unable to meet debts due to the impact of coronavirus from being forced to file for bankruptcy. He said the wrongful trading law would be suspended to protect directors during the pandemic. The move will allow directors of companies to pay staff and suppliers even if there are fears the company could become insolvent. Changes include a temporary moratorium for businesses undergoing a restructuring process, during which time they cannot be put into administration by creditors and will continue to be able to access all raw materials.

Alok Sharma said legislation, which would retrospectively apply from the beginning of March, would be introduced at the “earliest opportunity”. However, he cautioned that “all of the other checks and balances that help to ensure directors fulfil their duties properly will remain in force”.  Wrongful trading was introduced into UK insolvency law in 1986 and makes it an offence for a company director to continue to trade if they know the business is unable to avoid going into liquidation.

Latest government information and advice

The government is constantly publishing more information and advice. Please click here and follow the relevant sections that you require to see the latest information and advice.

Please do not hesitate to contact us, initially via email as this is the best way to reach us.   All contact details remain the same.