Coronavirus Hub

The Partners and staff at Humphrey & Co hope that all our clients and contacts are keeping well and staying safe. We would like to reassure you that Humphrey & Co continue to support you in this very unsettling time.

How Humphrey & Co are continuing to support our clients and our staff

A reception team member is in the office to facilitate the delivery or collection of records and documents, please liaise with your usual Humphrey & Co contact who will arrange for access at an agreed time, so papers can be safely and securely dropped off or collected.

Rest assured that our reception team are taking calls as normal and we all have access to our emails so if you have any questions or concerns please either call the office during our office hours of 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday on 01323 730631 or email your usual contact.

We have reviewed our workplace to ensure it is Covid secure and we continue to maintain a combination of staff in the office working safely and also working from home. We are arranging with clients to see them remotely via video link using either Zoom or Skype or if there is no suitable alternative we can arrange a meeting in our boardroom. In accordance with Government guidelines we ask that all visitors to our offices wear a face covering. Please speak to your usual contact to arrange a suitable date and time for a meeting.

All members of our technical team continue to keep abreast of the updates issued by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in relation to financial support and initiatives; key updates with web links can be found in the sections below.

Key dates for Coronavirus Business Support Schemes

For good cash-flow planning it’s important to know when applications for schemes open and close and the postponed payment dates for deferred taxes.

A summary of the key dates are listed below for the following:
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)
Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS)
Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS)
Job Support Scheme (JSS)
Plus VAT and income tax payments.

Date	Scheme	Action
1 November 2020	CJRS	Extension of the CJRS scheme: for claim periods running to January 2021 the government will pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay ER NICs & pension contributions This also applies to employees that are furloughed part-time.
	SEISS	Extension of the SEISS will cover the period from November to the end of January next year.
30 November 2020	CJRS	All CJRS claims for the period July-October must be submitted to HMRC.
31 January 2021	Self Assessment	Deadline for filing electronic self assessment personal tax returns for 2019/20. The deferred POA from 31 July (along with the balancing payment for 2019/20) is now due plus the first POA for 2020/21 is due. These payments can be deferred until January 2022.
	CBILS, CLBILS, BBL & Future Fund	The application window for these loans are open until this date.
1 March 2021	VAT	Due to the Coronavirus pandemic the domestic reverse charge for VAT relating to certain construction services was postponed, it comes into effect on this date.
31 March 2021	VAT	The period when the rate of VAT applied on tourism and hospitality related activities was cut from 20% to 5% comes to an end.
	CJRS	CJRS ends for all furloughed employees.
	Stamp Duty	No Stamp Duty on the first £500k ends today.
March/April 2021	CBILS & CLBILS	You will need to start repayments of the loan and interest 12 months from the date you took out the loan. Lenders have the ability to extend the length of loans from a maximum of six years to ten years if it will help businesses to repay the loan.
April 2021-March 2022	VAT	Deferred VAT bills can be paid back in 11 smaller instalments, interest-free, during the 2021-22 financial year.
May 2021	BBLS	You will need to start repayments of the loan and interest 12 months from the date you took out the loan. The length of the loan has been extended from six years to ten. Interest-only periods of up to six months and payment holidays will also be available to businesses.
January 2022	Self Assessment	Any payments deferred in 2020/21 are now due

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Contributions November 2020 - March 2021

The table shows Government contribution, required employer contribution and amount employee receives where the employee is furloughed 100% of the time.

Wage caps are proportional to the hours not worked.

	November	December	January	February	March
Government contribution: employer NICs and pension contributions	No	No	No	No	No
Government contribution: wages	80% up to £2,500	80% up to £2,500	80% up to £2,500	TBC	TBC
Employer contribution: employer NICs and pension contributions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Employer contribution: wages	-	-	-	TBC	TBC
Employee receives	80% up to £2,500 per month	80% up to £2,500 per month	80% up to £2,500 per month	TBC	TBC

Identify HMRC related scam phone calls, emails and text messages

Please beware of emails and messages pertaining to be from HMRC. Take extra caution at this time and do not click on links or share personal details. Please talk to us if you want to confirm whether any correspondence is genuine.

HMRC have issued a checklist to decide if a suspicious contact is a scam and not a genuine phone call, text message (SMS) or email. For further details please click here.