The Second Grant For Self Employed is Available

From Monday the second and Final grant became available for the self-employed. Anyone who is self-employed and has been adversely affected can claim.

Adversely affected is typically when your business has experienced lower income or higher costs due to coronavirus. HMRC expects you to make an honest assessment about whether your business has been adversely affected. There is no minimum threshold over which your business’ income or costs need to have changed.

In addition, all of the following must also apply:

  • you traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self-Assessment tax return on or before April 23, 2020, for that year
  • you traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
  • you intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021

You can use HMRC’s eligible checker to make sure you are eligible.

Full details of the scheme and how to claim are here.

You will need your Unique Tax Reference, National insurance Number and Access to your government gateway to claim

Green Deal: energy saving for your home

One of the measures announced by the on July 8, 2020, was the new £2 billion Green Homes Grant scheme.

From September, homeowners and landlords in England will be able to apply for a grant to make their home more energy-efficient. The Green Homes Grant will cover at least two-thirds of the cost up to £5,000 per household.

For low-income households, these grants will cover all costs up to £10,000. The scheme will run until March 31 2021.

The Green Homes Grants will give homeowners, including owner occupiers and social/private landlords, vouchers to install one or more of the following primary measures:

  • solid wall, under-floor, cavity wall or roof insulation
  • air source or ground source heat pump
  • solar thermal

More information on this scheme here.

£1.5bn of emergency funds remains unclaimed!

Around £1.5bn of emergency coronavirus funding for small business remains unspent with less than a month to go until the deadline for applications closes.

The Federation of Small Businesses is urging any firms yet to sign up to do so before the deadline, while at the same time urging councils to ensure the speedy issuance of them.

The good news is that according to official data Maidstone Borough Council have issued grants to 2,215 of their potential 2,261 eligible hereditaments.

The good news is that according to official data Medway Borough Council have issued grants to 2,992 of their potential 2,2934 eligible hereditaments.

Councils are working hard to ensure businesses receive this money, but there is still much unclaimed. View article here.

 The cost of reopening businesses

Research by Nucleus Commercial Finance found that SME owners that had to shut their business due to lockdown restrictions are now spending, on average, £21,830 to reopen fully.

With 44% of this cost going towards implementing safety measures.

While undoubtedly there will be costs these figures do seem high. That said by the time you add up all the cost from restarting a business, I can believe it.

Read the full article here.

 1 in 8 employees remain on Furlough as the scheme comes to an end

New figures taken by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 12% of the workforce is still furloughed, having contacted 23,905 businesses regarding trading and the impact of the virus for the two weeks to August 9.

New figures taken by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 12% of the workforce is still furloughed, having contacted 23,905 businesses regarding trading and the impact of the virus for the two weeks to August 9.

MRC, meanwhile, is probing a staggering 8,000 reports of furlough fraud.

Read the full story here.

 Furlough warning for people who have used scheme – HMRC issues update on penalty charges

There has been a new update from the HMRC who have warned an important issue surrounding the scheme. HMRC has stated that it will be writing to select individuals who may have claimed too much.

It has been stated that approximately 3,000 employers can expect to be contacted.

HMRC are aware that all employers were going through tough circumstances and know there is room for mistakes. There is, however, a scheme in place which allows employers a grace period of 90 days to report errors in their application without fear of a penalty.

The letter to employers will clearly lay out the actions they need to take going forward.

To find out more click here.