Government Support Simplified-Covid-19-Northern-Ireland

Updated 4th May, 2020

Coronavirus Business Support Finder Tool

A new 'support finder' tool will help businesses and self-employed people across the UK to quickly and easily determine what financial support is available to them during the coronavirus pandemic.

Job Retention Scheme

Who is eligible?

All UK Businesses are eligible

What does it mean?

HMRC will reimburse 80% of the wages paid while furloughed up to £2500 per month. Plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that subsidised wage. Backdated to March 1^st, for up to 3 months at the minute.

Who is covered ?

Full-time employees

Part-time employees

Employees on agency contracts

Employees on flexible or zero-hour contracts

Employees who have been made redundant since 29^th February

Directors including Directors of their own Personal Service Company (PSC)

Salaried employees of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP)

Employees that are carrying out voluntary work providing they are not generating income for the body they are volunteering for.

Who is not covered?

Anyone working, even on reduced hours or reduced pay, is not eligible.

Agency workers who are working elsewhere are not eligible

You will need:

You're PAYE reference number

The number of employees being furloughed

The claim period (start and end date)

Amount claimed (per the minimum length of furloughing of 3 weeks)

Your bank account number and sort code

Your contact name

Your phone number

How to Access?

Designate employees as furloughed workers and write to inform them, keep a record of the communication you will need this. Depending on contracts this may need to be negotiated. Submit information to HMRC about the furloughed employees. Details on the system to follow once established.

Directors that need to carry out essential work to maintain their business may do so to fulfil statutory obligations as long as they only carry out the work deemed necessary.

Tax

These payments should be treated as income and shown on accounts as such, usual deductions for employments costs can be made against them.

Further information:-

UK Governments Job Retention Scheme

Deferring VAT

Who is eligible?

All UK Businesses are eligible

What does it mean?

No business will need to make a VAT payment between 20^th March and 30^th June 2020. YOU STILL NEED TO COMPLETE YOUR VAT RETURN.

How to Access?

Businesses will have until the end of March 2021 to make up any deferred payments. The government will not charge penalties for payments made before then. If this is paid by Direct Debit, the DD should be cancelled with your bank to stop the payments. Details on how to pay missed payments will be available soon.

You do not need to tell HMRC that you are deferring VAT payments

If you are in financial distress visit:

https://www.gov.uk/difficulties-paying-hmrc

Deferring Income Tax Payments

Who is eligible?

Anyone who has a second "payment on account" due 31^st July 2020.

What does it mean?

Second Payment on account can be deferred until January 2021 with no penalties. It is recommended that if you can afford to make the payment you do so.

How to Access ?

This is an automated offer with no application needed.

Information on Payment on Account can be found here: - Payments on Account information

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

Who is eligible?

You can apply if you submitted a self-assessment tax return in the financial year 2018-2019 and traded in 2019-2020 tax year and intend to continue working as self-employed in 2020-2021 tax year, and have lost trading profits due to COVID-19, and profits are less than £50000, where that profit makes up more than 50% of your income.

How does it work?

Trading profits for 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 will be taken into account where applicable. If you started trading between 2016 and 2019 only the applicable years will be taken into consideration.

HMRC will use 2018-2019 tax return to determine who is eligible. Any late returns will be risk assessed.

How much can I get?

80% of average profit - Maximum eligible income is £2500 for 3 months. If you claim tax credits you'll need to include the grant in your claim as income.

How to Access.?

HMRC will contact you if you are eligible and ask you to apply on line, you do not need to contact HMRC, and unnecessary calls to HMRC are only slowing down the implementation process.

You will access this scheme only through GOV.UK. If someone texts, calls or emails claiming to be from HMRC, saying that you can claim financial help or are owed a tax refund, and asks you to click on a link or to give information such as your name, credit card or bank details, it is a scam

Sick Pay Support for Businesses

Who is eligible?

SME's with less than 250 employees as of 28^th February

How does it work?

Employees can reclaim statutory Sick pay for employees with COVID-19. This will cover 2 weeks SSP per employee.

Employers need to keep records

Employees need to get an isolation note from NHS 111 online https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19

How to Access?

A rebate scheme is currently being developed and will follow via the website

Business Rates Holiday

All NI businesses will pay zero rates for the next three months (April, May, June). This automatically reduces rates by 25%, in addition to any existing rate reliefs. This applies to all businesses and does not need to be repaid.

Support for Businesses That Pay Little or No Business Rates

Businesses in Northern Ireland can access the following schemes:

COVID Small Business Grant - Small business grant of £10,000 to be issued immediately with a cost of £267m providing support to 27,000 businesses in NI. This is for all businesses with a NAV up to £15,000

10,000 Small Business Support Grant Scheme

The NI Executive is providing a one-off grant of £10,000 to businesses that are currently in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR), subject to some exclusions.

SBRR is automatically applied to business properties with a rateable value below £15,000, though some exclusions to SBRR apply.
Vacant properties are not eligible for this grant
MLA Constituency offices are not eligible for this grant

Business with multiple premises will only be eligible for one grant of £10,000 in total.

For rental properties, the scheme is being designed to benefit the small businesses and not the landlord who is responsible for paying the rates. For this reason, no grant payments are being automatically issued to landlords of properties with a rateable value of £1,590 or less.

Landlords, managing agents and small businesses in this situation should not use the Small Business Grant Support online form to register for the scheme but should wait until a new online form for rental properties is made available in the coming days.

The £10,000 grant payment will be issued as soon as possible after you have completed online form. Please note that the payments may take three days to clear the banking process.

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme or CBILS

Who is Eligible?

Sole traders and freelancers are eligible as their activity is operated through a business bank account.

All UK based businesses with a turnover of less than £45m that meet British Business Bank eligibility criteria:-

Must be for business purposes

Business must generate 50% of income from trading activity

Trading in and with the UK

How do it work?

There are 40 accredited lenders which include Barclays, NatWest, HSBC, Metrobank, RBS, Ulster Bank, Santander, Lloyds Bank, Bank of Ireland and Bank of Scotland to name a few. Lloyds, RBS, Barclays and HSBC will not be asking for personal guarantees for under £250,000 loans.

Consider applying via the lenders web site in the first instance it may be quicker.

The lender will have their own specific requirements and will make their own decision on whether to lend the money. If one says no another may not. They each have their own criteria.

You must have proof you have a viable business

You can apply for the loan as well as other support for COVID-19

The government will pay interest and fees for 12 months.

What you need to consider:

You are responsible for paying capital repayments each month

Government provides an 80% guarantee to the lender

The Borrower is 100% liable for the debt

Borrowers need to have a borrowing proposal that would have been viable before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Consider how urgent your need is. There may be others in a more desperate situation. You can apply for a loan anytime in the next 6 months.

Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme

Launched April 20th, 2020

The Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) will support large businesses, with an annual turnover of over £45 million.

All viable businesses with turnover of more than £45 million per year will be able to apply for up to £25 million of finance. Firms with a turnover of more than £250 million will be able to apply for up to £50 million of finance.

The Scheme will be available through a series of accredited lenders, which will be listed on the British Business Bank website. The government will provide lenders with an 80% guarantee on individual loans. This will give banks the confidence to lend to many more businesses which are impacted by coronavirus. Facilities backed by a guarantee under CLBILS will be offered at commercial rates of interest.

This scheme allows lenders to support businesses that were viable before the coronavirus outbreak but now face significant cash flow difficulties that would otherwise make their business unviable in the short term.

Eligibility

You're eligible if:

your business is based in the UK
your business has an annual turnover of over £45 million
you can self-certify that your business has been adversely impacted by coronavirus
your business has not received a facility under the Bank of England's COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF)

You must also have a borrowing proposal which the lender:

would consider viable, if not for the coronavirus pandemic
believes will enable you to trade out of any short-term to medium-term difficulty

Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan

Updated 4th May, 2020

Who is eligible?

You can apply for a loan if your business:

Is based in the UK
Has been negatively affected by coronavirus
Was not an 'undertaking in difficulty' on 31 December 2019
You cannot apply if you already have a CBILS loan

How does it work?

The Bounce Back Loan scheme will help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000.
The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won't be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months.
Loan terms will be up to 6 years. No repayments will be due during the first 12 months. The government will work with lenders to agree a low rate of interest for the remaining period of the loan.
The scheme will be delivered through a network of accredited lenders.

How to Access?

The details will be available from May 4th

Support for Businesses Paying Tax: Time to Pay Service

Who is eligible

Any business with outstanding liabilities (payments due) to HMRC may be eligible. It is on a case by case basis and for businesses in financial distress

How to Access?

Call HMRC 0800 0159 559

Help and Advice

Call HMRC 0800 0241 222

Commercial Insurance

Some Commercial insurances cover you for Government ordered closure and unspecified notifiable diseases.

You may be able to make a claim if your policy covers for this! Check to see if you are covered. The government has added COVID-19 to the notifiable diseases list.

Protection from Eviction for Commercial Tenants

Who is eligible?

All commercial tenants are eligible

How does it work?

Commercial tenants in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, who cannot pay their rent due to COVID-19, are protected against eviction. The change will come into force when the Coronavirus Bill receives Royal Assent. No action is required.

This is not a rental holiday, the rent will still be due. All information is provided for information purposes only and should be verified at the following website

For more information visit:

Government Guidance for Employers and Businesses on COVID-19

Helpful numbers and HMRC Tax Helplines

HMRC has set up a helpline for businesses and self-employed people who are concerned about paying their tax due to COVID-19. The updated helpline number to support customers impacted by coronavirus is 0800 024 1222 and is open from 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday. HMRC have introduced this number to ensure extra capacity on their network so customers can get through to us more quickly. Calls to the old helpline number will be redirected.