Whilst the full extent of the coronavirus (COVID-19) remains unknown and the UK's response to the virus is constantly evolving, the one thing that is clear is that the economic impact could be significant and far reaching.

The Chancellor has announced several measures to help businesses at this very difficult and uncertain time:

Business Loans, Rates and Grants

• Government-backed loans worth £330bn will be made available to support businesses through the coronavirus crisis as part of "unprecedented" measures to help businesses and families.
• Interest-free business interruption loans will be increased to £5m, up from £1.2m announced in last week's Budget. Additionally, no interest will be due for the first 6 months.
• A 12-month business rates holiday for all shops, pubs, theatres, music venues, restaurants and any other hospitality or leisure business.
• A cash grant of up to £25,000 for those businesses with a rateable value of less than £51,000.
• A three-month mortgage holiday for those in difficulty because of coronavirus.
• Cash grants of £10,000 to £700,000 for the smallest businesses.

Applications often require a cash flow forecast to support them. If you need help with this - or with the application itself - please get in touch with your usual Jerroms contact.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

If your employee(s) are required to self-isolate following advice by NHS 111, then the Government has announced that SSP will be payable from Day 1, rather than Day 4.

If you are an SME, you will be able to reclaim the costs of SSP from the Government for up to two weeks per employee. An SME has been defined as a business with less than 250 employees as at 28 February 2020.

Delay to IR35 Reforms

It has also been announced that the implementation of the IR35 reforms, due to come into effect in April, will be delayed by one year. If we have been assisting you in preparing for this, we will be in touch with you individually with more information.

We are here to help...

Time to Pay Tax

If we act as your agent, we can speak directly to HMRC on your behalf about the following:

• Negotiating and agreeing Time to Pay arrangements
• Preparing reasonable excuse defences against penalties

The Government has also introduced a phone helpline to support businesses and self-employed individuals concerned about not being able to pay their tax liabilities. The helpline telephone number is 0800 0159 559 (opening hours are Monday to Friday (8am to 8pm) and Saturday (8am to 4pm)). However - agreeing a Time to Pay arrangement can be time consuming and difficult - if you would like us to negotiate this for you, please get in touch with us.

Do you need help mitigating your VAT bills to improve your cash flow?

There is a range of practical measures we can help you implement, including:

• Setting up an input tax accrual
• Claiming bad debt relief
• Changing your VAT periods
• Creating or disbanding VAT groups
• Changing terms of business
• Changing partial exemption methods
• Implementing cash accounting
• Moving to the flat rate scheme
• Potentially claiming historic refunds of VAT

Do you have any queries or concerns?

We are in very uncertain and challenging times, but if you are concerned in any way and you would like us to look into the above options or speak to HMRC for you, we are still working (either in the office or from home), so please get in touch with us on 0121 693 5000 (Solihull Office) or 01527 833124 (Bromsgrove Office).