Monthly Archives: avril 2020

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UPDATED CORONAVIRUS BUSINESS SUPPORT GUIDE

Following further announcements from HMRC, our business support guide has been updated to include changes to the grants Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employment Support Scheme.


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FURLOUGH RECLAIM PORTAL

HMRC have advised that the mechanism for making claims under the Coronavirus job retention scheme will be up and running from next Monday.

We are aware that HMRC are sending out the email below to businesses. However, please note that the portal will not be available until next week at the earliest and further information is still to come.

However, we will require from you the information in points 1 and 2 and for those employees who have been furloughed, we will need to know when the furlough applied from and whether it is still applicable. If employees have been un-furloughed, please let us know as soon as possible.

Demand for this service will be high and we will do our utmost to make the procedure as simple as possible although until final details are published, we cannot yet provide definitive advice.

In order for us to make any claim on your behalf, we need to be registered not only as your payroll agent but as an Online Registered Agent. Despite our best endeavours not all of our clients are yet so registered so we may have to guide you through the procedures for you to make an early claim where this extra layer of  registration has not yet been completed

This is not yet the ”green light” that was needed to make the process speedy and simple. Here is the generic email issued so far:

« Dear customer,

We want to help you get ready to make a claim under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

If you’re eligible for the scheme, there are things that you can do now to be ready when the system is up and running later this month.

You’ll need to provide the following to make a claim:

1. The bank account number and sort code you’d like us to use when we pay your claim.

2. The name and phone number of the person in your business for us to call with any questions.

3. Your Self-Assessment UTR (Unique Tax Reference), Company UTR or CRN (Company Registration Number).

4. The name, employee number and National Insurance number for each of your furloughed employees.

5. The total amount being claimed for all employees and the total furlough period.

If you use an agent who is authorised to act for you for PAYE purposes, they will be able to make a claim on your behalf, so please speak to them now.

However, if you use a file-only agent (files your RTI return but doesn’t act for you in other matters), they won’t be able to make a claim for you and you’ll need the information listed above from them to make the claim yourself.

For more detailed advice, please visit GOV.UK. This guidance is being regularly updated, so please review it frequently.

You may also find this recorded webinar helpful, ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) Job Retention Scheme’, available on HMRC’s YouTube channel.

We’ll email you again in the next few days with more details on how and when to access the online system – please do not try to do this until we let you know it is available.

We wish you all the best at this challenging time,

HMRC Customer Services »


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Complete this Survey to Make Your Voice Heard

For this reason we have written to the Chancellor and the Shadow Chancellor expressing our concerns about job preservation and cashflow for our client groups. To make the collective voice of SME’s, owner managed and family businesses heard, we now urgently need data to support our position. 

As you know, we are members of the UK200Group, the UK’s leading association of quality assured chartered accountants and law firms. Whilst we welcomed the recent announcements by the Government to support businesses, we are very concerned that some of our clients will fall through the support net. 

Please fill our survey in – it will take less than 3 minutes to answer and no hard data is requested. 

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE SURVEY

We would ask that the survey is completed by the 17 April 2020. We will then develop a report with the UK200Group, which will be shared with the Chancellor, the Shadow Chancellor and the Press. 

Thank you in advance. 

Kind regards and keep safe.


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WE ARE ON YOUR SIDE!

Our UK200Group has been working collectively to assist our 150,000 SME clients through the current difficulties. I am a member of our Public Policy Group which meets regularly to see how we can influence the government to provide support for everybody. Last Friday, we submitted a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer which is attached and it is now also being sent to the newly appointed shadow Chancellor and other political parties.

Whilst we await a reply, we will be publishing press releases that are of urgent concern to all our clients as I believe that the government has a considerable amount more to do to safeguard our futures.


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UPDATED – CORONAVIRUS BUSINESS SUPPORT GUIDE

Navigating the crisis

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and associated shutdown has significantly affected many businesses. We know you may be suffering in terms of cash flow and face enormous uncertainty about the future for your business. We will do all we can to help you.

In the newsletter below we have brought together what you need to know about the Government help available for small businesses. HMRC is automatically deferring the next VAT and Income Tax bills, and it will agree extra time for you to pay Corporation Tax and PAYE, but those terms need to be negotiated individually.


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Clarification on temporary changes to holiday entitlement

Given the government’s recent announcement in respect of the provision to carry forward holiday to the next 2 holiday years there seems to be some confusion or misunderstanding as to what this actually means. The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 amends the Working Time Regulations 1998 to create a further exemption relating specifically to COVID-19. Where it is not reasonably practicable for a worker to take some, or all, of the holiday to which they are entitled due to the coronavirus, they have a right to carry the 4 weeks under regulation 13 into the next 2 leave years.

Under the WTR, workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave per year (pro-rated for part time employees). This is made up of 4 weeks required under European law (Basic Leave), and an additional 1.6 weeks permitted under domestic legislation (Additional Leave). This entitlement includes bank holidays and is prorated in the year of joining. Some employees are entitled to more holiday under their contract of employment.

The WTR provides that workers must use their 4 weeks’ Basic Leave entitlement in the leave year in which it is due, otherwise the entitlement will be lost.

The government’s latest announcement applies to the 4 weeks’ Basic Leave. The government will amend the WTR so as to allow workers to carry-over up to 4 weeks’ holiday into the next two holiday years. This provision will apply where at the end of the year it has not been “reasonably practicable” for a worker to take some or all of this leave as a result of the effects of Coronavirus. Holiday in this case means taking a break from work and not the ability to use that time in any particular way i.e. travelling as opposed to staying at home.

The legislation previously prevented employers from allowing employees to carry forward unused basic statutory holiday entitlement to the next year.  Whilst the relaxation in the law is intended to enable employers to allow the carry forward for key essential workers to ensure they can continue the important work in hospitals, supermarkets or keep supplies flowing without losing the crucial time off they are entitled to it does apply to everyone. The « not reasonably practicable » requirement means that coronavirus will need to have had a genuine impact on the individual worker’s ability to take their leave for the carry over to apply, so this should not be used as a carte blanche by all employers to refuse or cancel holiday requests for the foreseeable future particularly if they are not significantly affected by the pandemic. The new rules do not make it an employee’s right to carry forward unused holiday but a relaxation in the law to enable employers to ensure key workers do not lose the essential time off which they have been unable to take due to the coronavirus outbreak or prevent the employer having a significant number of employees amassing holiday to take at a later date unless this is absolutely necessary.

The interplay between holiday and furlough leave under the government’s Job Retention Scheme is not clear. The Government guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme confirms that employment rights still accrue whilst on furlough therefore we take this to mean that holiday will therefore continue to accrue however clarification is still awaited on this point.


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ICAEW:

COVID-19: Directors on PAYE can furlough

31 March: Company directors that receive salaries through PAYE can be furloughed and apply for a grant of 80% of their salary during the coronavirus pandemic, ICAEW understands.

After examining HMRC guidance ICAEW believes that individuals who are directors of their own family companies and who are themselves paid via PAYE should be eligible for the coronavirus job retention scheme, although the same rules will apply as to other businesses and their employees.

Under the scheme, businesses are able to apply for government grants for employees’ salaries up to the lower of 80% of an employee’s regular wage and £2,500 per month for three months from 1 March. The scheme could run for longer if the restrictions in movements to halt the COVID-19 pandemic remain in place.

We are awaiting full details of how the scheme will operate from HMRC, including for directors paid via PAYE but not receiving a consistent, regular monthly salary. We understand the intention of the scheme is to include those on irregular earnings, but full details on how the amount of the grant will be calculated for these individuals have yet to be released.

As with other businesses, such directors would need to have been on the payroll on 28 February 2020 and they cannot work while they are on furlough leave. We do not yet know the extent to which minor directorial duties would be disregarded, or whether the requirement that a furloughed employee should do ‘no work’ would prohibit this.

https://www.icaew.com/insights/tax-news/2020/mar-2020/covid19-directors-on-paye-can-furlough



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Help Announced for the Self-Employed and Partnerships

The Government have recently extended the help available for those self-employed traders that have been affected by Covid-19.

For those that are eligible, the self-employment support scheme will allow you to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 for the next three months.

Those eligible for the grant are:

  1. Submitted an income tax self-assessment return for the tax year ended 5th April 2019.
  2. Traded in the current tax year. (2019/20)
  3. Are trading when applying for support or would be if had not lost trade due to Covid-19.
  4. Intend to trade in the 2020 to 2021 tax year.
  5. Have lost trading profits due to Covid-19.
  6. Your trading profits must be less than £50,000 in the 2018/19 tax year or average less than £50,000 for the past three tax years.
  7. Your self-employment income must form more than 50% of your overall income.

The above support does not apply to directors or owners of limited companies and for those that started trading after 6th April 2019. 

How to apply:

HMRC will be writing to those that they identify as eligible from your tax return submissions with detail on how to make a claim.

Once the application has been made, HMRC will pay the grant direct into your bank account as one lump sum.

HMRC has suggested that they hope to open the claiming procedure by June 2020 but as yet no indication of when payments will be issued has been provided.

Please note, any grant received will be taxable and will need to be included in your income and considered for tax credit purposes.

If you are not sure if you are eligible for a grant, please contact our tax manager, Fran, who will be happy to assist.

Please note that If you are not eligible for the above, please remember your second payment on account due to HMRC by the 31st July 2020, can be deferred. Secondly, you may wish to consider applying for Universal Credit during this period of disruption. Please note that the above support does not apply to directors or owners of limited companies and for those that started trading after 6th April 2019.



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Protection from eviction for commercial tenants

Businesses will struggle to pay their rents & rates – this will be a difficult time. The government states;

Commercial tenants who cannot pay their rent because of COVID-19 will be protected from eviction.

These measures will mean no business will automatically forfeit their lease and be forced out of their premises if they miss a payment up until 30 June.

There is the option for the government to extend this period if needed.

This is not a rental holiday. All commercial tenants will still be liable for the rent. Commercial tenants are protected from eviction if they are unable to pay rent.

This obviously presents a problem for the landlords & the expectation is that the banks & other lenders will be expected to be flexible to assist getting through this situation.

A similar view is being taken with residential properties where tenants evictions will not be possible due to non-payment of rent.

It is worth both landlords & tenants discussing options to try and work through this together to avoid as much disruption as is possible.


Contactez nous

The Martlet Partnership LLP
Martlet House
E1 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Worthing
West Sussex
BN13 3QZ
UK

Tel.: +44 (0) 1903 600555
Fax.: +44 (0) 1903 600828
E-mail: info@martletpartnership.com