News

HMRC have announced from the 2023/24 tax year, taxpayers who are exclusively taxed through PAYE will only have to file a tax return once their earnings exceed £150,000.

The threshold of £100,000 remains unchanged for 2022/23 and therefore individuals earning over £100,000 will still need to file a tax return by 31 January 2024.

Be careful! This increase will only benefit taxpayers if they don’t meet one of the other criteria to submit a self-assessment return. Other criteria currently include:

• liability to the high income child benefit charge;
• receipt of self-employment income over £1,000; and
• receipt of untaxed income of £2,500 or more.

HMRC have a handy online tool to check if you need to file a self-assessment tax return or for further information on your specific requirements, contact us today.

Following the PM’s announcement that the country is entering it’s third lockdown, the chancellor has announced a support package of £4.5bn – with grants of up to £9,000 per property.

We will issue updates regarding eligibility and when claims can be made once we receive further guidelines from the government along with any updates to the current support packages available.

The government announced on 8th July 2020 that they are introducing a one-off payment of £1,000 to UK employers for every furloughed employee who remains continuously employed through to the end of January 2021. Employees must earn above the Lower Earnings Limit (£520 per month) on average between the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the end of January 2021. Payments will be made from February 2021.

Further detail about the scheme will be announced by the end of July.

From 1st July employers will:

• only be able to claim for employees who have previously been furloughed for at least 3 consecutive weeks taking place any time between 1 March 2020 and 30 June
• be able to flexibly furlough employees – this means you can bring your employees back to work for any amount of time, and any work pattern
• still be able to claim the furlough grant for the hours your flexibly furloughed employees do not work, compared to the hours they would normally have worked in that period

For the full HMRC guidelines click here

The coronavirus bounce back loan is now available for small and medium-sized businesses affected by coronavirus (COVID-19).

The scheme helps small and medium-sized businesses borrow between £2,000 and £50,000.

The government guarantees 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 scheme will be delivered through a network of accredited lenders.

If your business has been affected by COVID-19 and the loan will be beneficial to your business check out the government website for full details on eligibility by clicking on this button.

This scheme is applicable to sole traders and members of a partnership

The government have introduced a scheme which will allow you to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 per month for the next 3 months.

The temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme supports SMEs with access to loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance of up to £5 million and for up to 6 years.

The government will also make a Business Interruption Payment to cover the first 12 months of interest payments and any lender-levied fees, so smaller businesses will benefit from no upfront costs and lower initial repayments.

The government will provide lenders with a guarantee of 80% on each loan (subject to pre-lender cap on claims) to give lenders further confidence in continuing to provide finance to SMEs. The scheme will be delivered through commercial lenders, backed by the government-owned British Business Bank.

There are 40 accredited lenders able to offer the scheme, including all the major banks.

Eligibility

You are eligible for the scheme if:

• your business is UK based, with turnover of no more than £45 million per year
• your business meets the other British Business Bank eligibility criteria

How to access the scheme

The scheme is now open for applications. All major banks are offering this scheme.

To apply, you should talk to your bank or one of the 40 accredited finance providers (not the British Business Bank) as soon as possible, to discuss your business plan. You can find out the latest on the best ways to contact them via their websites. Please note that branches may currently be shut down to enable social distancing.

The full rules of the scheme and the list of accredited lenders are available on the British Business Bank website.

If you have an existing loan with monthly repayments you may want to ask for a repayment holiday to help with cash flow.

As part of the recent government action against COVID-19 the government announced on the 23rd March 2020 that all retailers that sell non-essential goods and other non-essential premises were to close as part of the increased measures to promote social distancing.

For the latest list we have attached a PDF summary. Please click here. [Last updated 25th March 2020]

To check for the most recent updates we recommend that you view the HMRC website using the following link

The government are to introduce a scheme of Statutory Self-Employment Pay that will be made available to individuals who are self-employed or freelancers.

The government have announced they will set out their plan to help the self-employed during the daily Coronavirus broadcast on 26th March 2020

Please check back for further information…

Payments due on the 31 July 2020 will be deferred until the 31 January 2021.

Eligibility

Applies to all taxpayers due to pay a second payment on account

How to access the scheme

This is an automatic offer with no applications required.

HMRC have stated that if you are able to make the July payment to avoid a larger payment in January 2021 then you should do so.

No penalties or interest for late payment will be charged in the deferral period.

HMRC have also scaled up their Time to Pay offer to all firms and individuals who are in temporary financial distress as a result of Covid-19 and have outstanding tax liabilities.

Self assessment tax returns should still be filed by their due date and it may be advantageous to file your 2019/20 return as soon as possible after 5 April 2020.