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.

Where we would usually meet with you face to face we can arrange a meeting via video link using either Zoom or Skype. If a virtual meeting is not appropriate and a face to face meeting is required, we can arrange a meeting in our boardroom. Please speak 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)
Plus VAT and income tax payments.

Date	Scheme	Action
30 June 2020	CJRS	The furlough period for the first CJRS ends. Separate claims must be issued for the months of July to October.
	VAT	The VAT payment holiday ends. Unless you have a time to pay agreement with HMRC in place all VAT due after this date must be paid on the due dates. Businesses must ensure they reinstate their direct debit mandates.
1 July 2020	CJRS	Start date for the revised furlough scheme, the following restrictions apply: The employees must have already been furloughed for 3 weeks prior to 30 June 2020 Employers cannot claim for more than the number of employees claimed for in the original CJRS period (March - June). The scheme will cover 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 as well as employer National Insurance (ER NICs) and minimum auto-enrolment pension contributions for the hours the employee does not work.
	CJRS	Flexible Furloughing Employers can bring back to work employees that have previously been furloughed for any amount of time and any shift pattern, while still being able to claim CJRS grant for their normal hours not worked. When claiming the CJRS grant for furloughed hours employers will need to report and claim for a minimum period of a week.
8 July 2020	Economic Update	The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will deliver an economic update. This will set out the next stage in the UK’s plan to ‘secure the recovery’.
	Stamp Duty	From today until 31 March 2021, buyers will pay no Stamp Duty on the first £500k when they move home.
13 July 2020	SEISS	Deadline for applications for the first SEISS grant to be submitted to HMRC.
14 July 2020	SEISS	If your business was adversely affected by Coronavirus on or after this date you will be eligible for the second SEISS grant. Applications for the second grant will open in August. Individuals will be able to claim a second taxable grant worth 70% of their average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering three months’ worth of profits, and capped at £6,570 in total.
15 July 2020	VAT	The Government will cut the rate of VAT applied on tourism and hospitality related activities from 20% to 5% for six months.
31 July 2020	CJRS	Employers have until this date to make any claims to HMRC in respect of the furlough period to 30 June.
	Self Assessment (SA) Payment on Account (POA)	Usually the due date for the second SA POA of income tax and Class 4 NIC for 2019/20 tax year. HMRC have deferred this payment to 31 January 2021. Taxpayers may pay the tax and NIC due by this date if they wish, so as not to have two payments to make on 31 January 2021.
1 August 2020	CJRS	The government will continue to pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 for the hours the employee does not work - employers will pay ER NICs and pension contributions for furloughed employees. This also applies to employees that are furloughed part-time.
Date TBA August 2020	SEISS	Applications for the second grant will open in August. An individual does not need to have claimed the first grant to receive the second grant: for example, they may only have been adversely affected by COVID-19 in this later phase.
1 September 2020	CJRS	The government will pay 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay ER NICs, pension contributions and 10% of wages to make up 80% of the total, up to a cap of £2,500. This also applies to employees that are furloughed part-time.
30 September 2020	CBILS	The application window for this loan is open until this date, but the government have the option to extend beyond this date. Lenders have two more months to consider the cases. That pushes the final approvals date to November 30.
1 October 2020	CJRS	For the final month of the scheme, the government will pay 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875 for the hours the employee does not work – employers will pay ER NICs, pension contributions and 20% of wages to make up 80% of the total, up to a cap of £2,500. This also applies to employees that are furloughed part-time.
19 October 2020	SEISS	Claims for the second grant must be made on or before this date.
20 October 2020	CLBILS	The application window for this loan is open until this date, but the government have the option to extend beyond this date. Lenders have two more months to consider the cases. That pushes the final approvals date to December 31.
31 October 2020	CJRS	CJRS ends for all furloughed employees.
	Mortgage	If you have not taken a mortgage payment holiday you have until this date to apply.
4 November 2020	BBLS	The application window for this loan is open until this date, but the government have the option to extend beyond this date.
30 November 2020	CJRS	All CJRS claims for the period July-October must be submitted to HMRC.
12 January 2021	VAT	The 6 month period when the rate of VAT applied on tourism and hospitality related activities was cut from 20% to 5% comes to an end.
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.
	CJRS	Employers will receive a £1,000 bonus for each furloughed employee who is still employed as of 31 January 2021.
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	If you deferred March – June 2020 VAT payment, it must be paid by this date.
	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.
May 2021	BBLS	You will need to start repayments of the loan and interest 12 months from the date you took out the loan.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Contributions July – October 2020

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.

	July	August	September	October
Government contribution: employer NICs and pension contributions	Yes	No	No	No
Government contribution: wages	80% up to £2,500	80% up to £2,500	70% up to £2,187.50	60% up to £1,875
Employer contribution: employer NICs and pension contributions	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Employer contribution: wages	-	-	10% up to £312.50	20% up to £625
Employee receives	80% up to £2,500 per month	80% up to £2,500 per month	80% up to £2,500 per month	80% up to £2,500 per month