Dear Friends
It has been a tough couple of weeks I know! I feel like I have learnt more in the last 2 weeks than in the last 10 years, and in that time, I have passed numerous exams, set up my own business, taken on an office and employed a team.
I wanted to set out what our plans, as your accountants, are over the coming weeks and months.
Limited Companies
For the furlough status staff that may or may not include you as directors / business owner, we will be on a crash course of learning the new HMRC system for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme when it becomes available (currently expected the end of April). We will make the necessary claims for you, unless you instruct us otherwise.
To enable us to do this we will be in touch over the next few weeks to ascertain which employees you have / will be furloughing, these requests will come from myself, Demi or Jackie and I apologise now if you have to repeat yourselves. We want to be sure we have the right information so we can make the claims as quickly and efficiently as possible, my memory is good but not always great.
We need to run payroll as normal through HMRC’s RTI system and then claim back the furlough amounts, to do this we need to know if you are covering 100% of your employee’s salaries or the 80% the government are funding, you can do either.
We appreciate that you will want the claims made as soon as possible to pay your staff and want to assure you we will do this as quickly as we possibly can, we will contact you if we need any information and will confirm with you once the claim is submitted.
Self-employment
Our understanding so far is that it will be an automatic claim based on your tax return submissions for the 3 years to 2018-19 (or part thereof). If you have not submitted your tax return for the 2018-19 tax year then please get in touch, the government have given you 4 weeks to do so to be included in their scheme, failure to submit this return will render your claim to nothing so it’s important.
If you would like to know what the pay out might be then please reply to this email and we will let you know ASAP, this can help you to plan your finances and therefore a budget for the next couple of months.
If you have not yet submitted your tax return for 2018-19 then please do so or contact us with the details so we can submit on your behalf – you will not get any help if you do not submit this return.
Grants from Local Authorities
It looks like some local authorities have set up online claim forms to enable you to get these quickly, please check with your local council if you have not done so already. I have 1 client who has received the cash already, so you know it’s real and well-done Southwark Council for moving so quickly.
Whilst these grants are not specifically repayable, they are taxable. They will form part of your turnover for your current financial year and be taxed as required.
Financial Information
If you are applying for Business Interruption loans or making insurance claims then please do let us know if you need assistance with financial information, which we will be happy to provide for you.
At some point we will ‘pay’ for these measures our government have provided us, but for now I am eternally grateful that they have stepped up and provided us some lifeline’s. I do not know all the answers unfortunately, it’s an unknown time for all with new systems and measures being put in place but I will be a sounding board and a friendly ear if you need it.
As ever, stay safe and healthy.
Very Best
Mel x