Updated Information on how small businesses and the self-employed can weather Covid 19 – April 15th, 2020

Today’s blog covers a couple of things – mainly further information about the self-employed grant that is available.

1) Self-employed Grant

HMRC have published information about how they will work out the total income and trading profits when it comes to the Self-Employment Grant. They will use the figures on your submitted tax returns and calculate your trading profits by taking the total trading income (turnover) and subtracting any allowable business expenses and capital expenditure.

They will not deduct any losses carried forward from previous years or your personal allowance.

If you have more than one self-employment business in the same tax year, they will add together all of the profits and losses for all of the trades to work out your trading profit.

If you have worked for more than one year, HMRC will add together all profits and losses for the tax years you’ve had continuous trade (they won’t go back any further then the 2016-2017 tax year) and divide the figure by the number of years (maximum of 3).

This article covers what HMRC class as allowable expenses and provides some examples of how they will work out your trading profit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-hmrc-works-out-total-income-and-trading-profits-for-the-self-employment-income-support-scheme

2) Job Retention Scheme

The Job Retention Scheme is now going through beta testing with a few chosen employers and the government has announced it will be operational for April 20th.

So that you can use the portal, you need to make sure that you have the following information:
– employer PAYE reference number
– number of employees being furloughed
– National Insurance Number for the employees being furloughed
– Names of the employees being furloughed
– Payroll/works number for the employees being furloughed
– your Self Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference or Corporation Tax Unique Payer Reference or Company Registration Number
– the claim period (start and end date)
– amount claimed (per the minimum length of furloughing of 3 consecutive weeks)
– your bank account number and sort code
– your contact name
– your phone number
– your government gateway login details

If you use an agent who acts for you for PAYE purposes, they will be able to make a claim on your behalf. However, if you use a file only agent (they only file your RTI return but doesn’t act for you on any other matters), they won’t be able to make a claim on your behalf – they can only assist you in obtaining the information you need to claim.

As more information is released, I will blog about it and share it on the FB page.

The information and policies are continually being updated by the government, so I urge you to keep on top of the information by visiting the relevant website for your area.

UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses
Scotland: https://www.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/
Wales: https://gov.wales/business-and-employers-coronavirus
Northern Ireland: https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/

I will be trying to keep myself as informed as possible and will share relevant information on my fb business page: https://www.facebook.com/ihelmenterprises/

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