Yesterday the Chancellor announced the Jobs support scheme to replace the furlough scheme from 1st November. This scheme is to support Employers that are having to reduce staff hours due to the Corona Virus. From 1st November any small company can access this scheme for 6 months. The Employer will pay the Employee as usual for any worked hours. For any remaining unworked hours the Employer will pay 1/3, the Government 1/3 and the Employee will suffer the remaining [...]
Employees may be able to claim tax relief if they are working from home for their Employer. From April 2020 you may claim £6 per week (£312 per year) without having to keep any records. Please check if you can claim at www.hmrc.gov.uk and search “claim tax relief for your job expenses” – Remember you cannot claim if you are self employed or a company director and we are already claiming “Use of Home” expenditure in your accounts
If you are paying low amounts of National Insurance to save PAYE, please go to the HMRC website and use your National Insurance number to check your lifetime contributions, to see if you should voluntarily add to them to receive full benefits when you are older
From August 17th you can apply for your second corona virus support grant. If you are self employed, qualify and still affected by the virus on or after 14th July then go to www.hmrc.gov.uk and apply exactly the same way as the first. This time the grant is for 70& of three months income capped at £6,570.
Remember to pay your second payment on account for personal 2020 tax by 31st July. Personal tax payments are made up of three different payments. One half in January and one half in July of that year and then if there is a balance due following submission of your tax return, this is payable in January of the following year.
Furlough scheme – from 1st July staff can be furloughed part time on a daily basis instead of the current 3 week minimum furlough period. Also from 1st August you will not be able to claim for furloughed staff employers NI and pension contributions. From 1st September in addition to this, the furlough wage reclaim lowers to 70% and then from 1st October 60%, until totally ceasing 31st October.
Keep checking your emails for all updates regarding the corona virus and business and tax advice. Including the PAYE and self employed job retention schemes, government grants, government backed bank loans and the fact that VAT and personal tax is deferred.
The biggest points to affect a small business in yesterdays budget were : A Tax cut for 31 million people by increasing the National Insurance threshold from £8,632 to £9,500 Emergency base rate interest rates cut from 0.75% to 0.25% Business rates for small firms in leisure and retail with a rateable value of less than £51,000 will be scrapped Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be available to all employees advised to self isolate due to the Corona virus. Employers with less than [...]
From 6th April 2020 the way you declare your Capital Gain Tax (CGT) to HMRC when selling a second property changes. Instead of just including the sale in your end of year personal tax return you must also now personally declare the gain online at www.hmrc.gov.uk and pay the tax due within 30 days of the sale. There is an online calculator to help you pay the correct tax. The sale must also still be included on your end of [...]
If you are an employer and employee staff over 22 years old or earning over £10,000 you must offer them a company pension scheme, even if they wish to opt out. If you do not set up a pension scheme the regulator may fine you up to £5,000 per company. Please note that this is the responsibility to set up, enrol and reenrol, of the director not the accountant.
