Helpful guide for SMEs about the changes to the furlough scheme

Helpful guide for SMEs about the changes to the furlough scheme

The government has announced a number of changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – more commonly referred to as ‘furlough’. These changes start to take effect from 1 July.

To help SMEs understand the changes and how they apply to them, we have produced a handy guide – Everything SMEs need to know about Furlough.

Covering everything from what is furlough, what are the changes, how to make claims and record keeping; right through to eligibility, how to calculate claims and bringing employees back from furlough, this guide provides essential guidance to all SME businesses.

The furlough scheme has provided vital support to SMEs over the past few months.  With significant changes coming into effect from 1 July, we are receiving an increasing number of queries from SMEs who need help and guidance on the practical aspects of having employees on furlough. 

As businesses look to getting back to some form of normal and start to ‘re-open’ they are faced with some crucial decisions.  This guide has been produced to help SMEs consider the implications for their business and guide them on the choices they have. It also provides practical guidance on how they can start to bring back employees from furlough, whilst ensuring they do things correctly and understand, and continue to get, the support they are entitled to.

You can find the guide here:

Summary Table of Government support to businesses

Please find below a helpful summary table of Government measures to businesses during the coronavirus crisis.

UPDATED CORONAVIRUS BUSINESS SUPPORT GUIDE

Major update to our business guide regarding furlough and government grants for the self-employed .

Following further announcements from HMRC, our business support guide has been updated, in particular the following sections:

• Grants for employers
• Grants for the self-employed
• Sick pay support for employers

Minor changes have been made to the following sections

• 10 Protection for tenants – Mortgage protection
• 13 Business rates and grants: Regional variations

Are you self-employed or running a small limited company? Have you applied for a grant from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme?

One of the government support schemes is the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) which is a scheme to provide financial assistance in the form of a grant to those that are self-employed or members of partnerships that have been adversely affected by Covid-19.

If you are self-employed, in a partnership or have a small limited company and think you may be eligible for support through SEISS, we would appreciate it if you could take a minute to complete our short survey.
The survey contains just 3 quick questions and your participation will help us understand whether the self employed are getting the support they need through the scheme.

Please click here to participate in the survey:

The survey is open until 12pm on Thursday 21st May 2020.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5DGNSBZ

Your feedback will be used to identify and escalate the biggest issues for the self-employed to the government.

I do hope you will be able to take a moment to participate.

Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme set to launch

Employers will be able to make claims through the Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme from 26 May.

UK200Group stress tests government’s self-employed SEISS portal

The Martlet Partnership alongside members of the UK200Group have helped HMRC stress test their online Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) portal.

The portal, which went live today, the 13th May, was built and tested in record time, and allows self-employed workers to claim a grant of up to £7,500.

Andrew Jackson, Head of Corporate Tax at Fiander Tovell and Chair of the Tax Panel of the UK200Group comments:

“Members of the UK200Group support thousands of self-employed businesses. From today the SEISS portal allows the self-employed to access up to £7,500 in order to help ensure that their business survives the Covid19 lockdown.”

“While there will be 5,000 HMRC staff manning phone lines, plus webchat, it was important for us to identify and address as many potential issues as possible. This is because the portal has been designed for the claimant to use, rather than their accountant. It was therefore essential that it is both simple and intuitive to use, and we were extremely pleased to be able to help the HMRC in testing the portal.”

Poll of SMEs on their Biggest Challenges Following an Easing of the Lockdown Restrictions

Following the announcement by the government of a gradual easing of the lockdown restrictions on Sunday 10^th May, we conducted a poll of SMEs. The poll was conducted over 24 hours on Monday 11^th & Tuesday 12^th May 2020.

Below are the results.

Health & Safety Ranked Top concern for businesses emerging from lockdown

Cash Flow comes second, Client Confidence third

Health and safety is the most pressing concern among businesses emerging from lockdown according to the latest poll we have undertaken together with other members of the UK’s leading legal and accounting membership group, the UK200Group.

The survey of 550 SME clients shows 276 are concerned about health and safety, 249 about cash flow and 223 about getting clients to buy.

What this poll shows us is that it’s the uncertainty of reopening a business, with all the related complexities that it entails, that businesses are worried about now. They are confident about how to get their basic operations back up and running, but need clarity about how they should be protecting employees and customers, and getting customers to buy from them. It is also important to note that while the extension to furlough funding is plainly welcome, the longer businesses remain closed the higher the chance of them not surviving.”

Whilst the government has provided useful guidance, the onus on businesses and employers is significantly increased. 

SMEs have indicated through this poll that they need more guidance about how it will impact them and how they will be measured. This ranges from using PPE to managing social distancing in environments that were not designed for pandemics.

The survey also shows that while wrongful trading provisions have been temporarily suspended, the practical aspects of the challenge to manage cashflow remain, as does the imperative to keep customers happy, maintain furloughed and retained staff morale and being fair to suppliers, including agreeing stage payments to them if required. 

Businesses are also weighing up the issues involved in seeking legal redress when not being paid for services, and the need to consider protective claims through the Courts, as and when they reopen.

The poll results are helping us to look at the different ways that we can help our clients.  We will be developing more content and tools to support you on the issues highlighted in the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime, please do get in touch if we can help in any way.

David Macdonald BA FCA
Managing Partner
The Martlet Partnership LLP
T: +44 (0) 1903 600555
E: david@martletpartnership.com

Beware of scam emails pretending to be HMRC

HRMC are genuinely sending out far more emails to taxpayers and businesses at the moment for a variety of reasons.

However, we are aware that a large number or scam emails are being generated.

HMRC have issued guidance as to the subjects about which they are sending emails and also how to recognise fraudulent communications.

We are giving the link provided by HMRC to a very useful document they have prepared.

In particular, we would draw your attention to paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2.

Please be very aware of any communication you receive that is genuinely from HMRC or purport to be from that organisation before replying and we hope you find this guidance helpful.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/genuine-hmrc-contact-and-recognising-phishing-emails/genuine-hmrc-contact-and-recognising-phishing-emails

Planning for the Future: A practical checklist to help SMEs prepare for returning to work post lockdown

As we enter into a new ‘stage’ of the coronavirus world, we have produced a helpful checklist to help you prepare your business for the ‘post lockdown’ era.

This checklist is a useful reminder of the key things that need to be in place if you are going to get your business functioning efficiently and effectively; looking after your people and your customers and moving your business forward.

Our checklist has been structured around the four pillars of business organisation:

• Operations & technology
• Finance & resourcing
• People
• Marketing & communications

Please find our checklist below:

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme “SEISS”

HMRC have begun to contact and release information on who may be eligible for the Government’s Self – Employment Support Scheme (SEISS).

Frustratingly, HMRC have stated that we cannot make the claim for you and you must make the claim yourself. However, we wish to reassure you are not on your own and we will be supporting you as required to complete these claims.

HMRC have released an online eligibility checker to understand your position. If you are eligible it will then provide you with a date that you will be able to submit your claim. If it states you are not eligible, please contact us, we can review your position further and if we disagree we can apply to HMRC for your case to be reviewed.

In preparation to make an online claim for those that qualify, you will need to activate a government gateway with HMRC.  Please be aware that these are personal accounts, so we will not hold your USERID or password. To be able to verify yourself with the Government, please have your passport and NI number to hand and keep your USERID and password safe. We would urge you to complete these accounts as soon as possible so your claims are not delayed.

To check your eligibility and to create a gateway account, please click on the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/self-employed-invited-to-get-ready-to-make-their-claims-for-coronavirus-covid-19-support

As a reminder, to be eligible to this taxable grant, you must meet all of these conditions:

• you have traded as self-employed in 2019/20 and are still trading in 2020/21 (or would be trading if it were not for the business disruption caused by COVID-19)

• you expect to continue to trade in 2020/21

• you receive more than half of your taxable income from self-employment, even if you also hold an employed position

• you are registered with HMRC as self-employed and submitted a tax return for the tax year 2018/19

• your average annual taxable profits for the three years to 2018/19 are less than £50,000, or your taxable profits for 2018/19 are less than £50,000

• you have lost trading profits due to coronavirus