All UK businesses can access loans and other finance of up to £10 million each, following the end of COVID-19 loan schemes. Both business interruption loans – for large firms and SMEs – and bounce-back loans officially closed on 31 March 2021. Firms that received financial support from any of those schemes can apply for … Continued
Three-month extension for business rates holiday in England
The year-long business rates holiday in England has been extended for another three months, until the end of June 2021. Eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will then pay a third of their normal charge for the rest of the financial year. A maximum discount of £2 million is available to non-essential retail firms that … Continued
Record number miss self-assessment filing deadline due to COVID-19
Around 1.8 million taxpayers missed the 2019/20 deadline for self-assessment on 31 January 2021, according to figures published by HMRC. The tax authority revealed 1,790,368 people failed to beat the midnight deadline, almost double last year’s total of 958,296. HMRC attributed the spike in the number of personal taxpayers missing this year’s midnight deadline – … Continued
Changes to prompt-payment code aim to end late payments
Thousands of small businesses that face severe cashflow problems due to late payments stand to benefit from changes to the prompt-payment code. The Government has strengthened the prompt-payment code so that 95% of invoices from smaller suppliers must be paid within 30 days from 1 July 2021. This has been halved from the current 60 … Continued
Personal allowance and higher-rate threshold to increase 0.5%
A 0.5% increase to the personal allowance and higher-rate of income tax will be in place from 6 April 2021, according to the Treasury. Both thresholds will increase in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation figure for September 2020, which was 0.5%. This means the personal allowance will increase from £12,500 … Continued
Opt-in to VAT deferral new payment scheme by 31 March 2021
Businesses that deferred paying VAT between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 do not need to pay the full amounts by the end of this month. VAT-registered firms were not required to make VAT payments during this deferral period, and initially had until 31 March 2021 to pay any liabilities. However, the Government’s winter … Continued
Advisory Fuel Rate for Company Cars from 1 March 2021
These are the suggested reimbursement rates for employees’ private mileage using their company car from 1 March 2021. Where there has been a change the previous rate is shown in brackets. Engine Size Petrol Diesel LPG 1400cc or less 10p 7p 1600cc or less 9p (8p) 1401cc to 2000cc 12p (11p) … Continued
Covid-19 Update 19/2/2021
Please find the attached update here.
Retail sales slumped to a 25-year low in 2020
Retailers experienced their worst annual sales performance since records began, figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show. While food sales grew by 5.4%, non-food sales declined by 5% over the same period resulting in an overall fall of 0.3% in 2020. In a year dominated by the effects of COVID-19, the figures marked the … Continued
Record number of small businesses ‘set to close for good in 2021’
At least 250,000 small businesses could permanently close this year, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has warned. The FSB based its forecast on a survey of 1,401 small firms, 5% of which said they expect to go out of business this year. If that percentage was to be applied to the UK’s six million … Continued