A message from Nabarro Poole’s Tyler Lappage
The situation is always changing, but I thought it might be helpful to summarise what help is available as things stand. As always, we are available for a one to one chat about any of this. Please feel free to share this with your associates and contacts as appropriate. I love being part of the business community in Manchester and beyond and have faith that we will all support each other. Take care of your families and friends as much as you can and please pick up the phone and speak to me if/when things are getting on top of you.
VAT – deferred officially now. We will still run the returns for you and calculate the amount payable, but this doesn’t need to be paid at the moment and you don’t need to speak to HMRC to agree this.
Self-Assessment Tax – July payments on account do not need to be paid in July – deferred 6 months.
Job Retention Scheme – I don’t have any extra information about this at this time. We still need all the detail from HMRC about how and when to claim.
This is a very welcome scheme and is perfect for any businesses that have been forced to close (retail, some manufacturing, lots of businesses, in fact) and their staff can’t work from home or there is nothing for them to do. In that case, follow the guidelines as they come out and take full advantage of this generous scheme.
It may not be the best option for many of my clients though, so before taking any immediate action, take a moment to consider:
Some of our clients have already spoken to their staff and arranged for potentially reducing their hours/days and therefore reducing their pay – to say 75% in April – then 50% in May (depending on how the situation unfolds). That would allow the staff to continue to work and be productive and, importantly, to be ready to hit the ground running at the earliest possible time.
That would be entirely at the cost of the business.
Now, there is an option to temporarily lay staff off and have HMRC pay them 80% of their wages – BUT, they can’t do any work in that time for the business, so are non-productive (but free).
Look – in the grand scheme of things – this is a small issue – people’s health is most important, but as responsible business owners – we need to make the best decisions for our staff not only at the moment, but also look at the longer term – to ensure there is a business for staff to work at for years to come after this.
Now, more than ever – we need to make informed decisions and be pro-active, not reactive.
Commercial rent – there is a bill being passed that will prevent businesses being evicted from their rented premises if they miss a payment in the next 3 months. Tenants will still need to pay that rent eventually.
That’s all I have for now. I think I have spoken to almost all of you over the last two weeks, but if not, and you would like to chat through any of this – please drop me a line and we can arrange a call.
Take care of yourselves – your business needs you. Take care of everyone else also, where possible.
Tyler
Just to note that all our staff at Nabarro Poole are working from home. You should not see any change in the service level, but please be patient in these first couple of weeks. I am also a small business owner dealing with the same issues, but want to be available for all my clients in this difficult time
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