The information that was contained within this article has now been superseded, you can view the updated information here.

This scheme will allow self-employed individuals (including those who are members of a partnership) to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 per month for the next 3 months. This may be extended if needed.
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The following is our understanding of this policy and how this will work based on the information published up to and including Midday on 27 March. It should not be relied on for final advice at this stage but is intended to give an indication of how the scheme will work.

If you pay your VAT by Direct Debit (DD) and want to take advantage of the current deferral opportunity there is action you must take.

The Government have updated their COVID-19 Business Support web page with details of deferrral of VAT and some Self-Assessment tax payments.  

Yesteray evening (17th March 2020) the Government announced a delay to the off-payroll working rules that were due to come in from April 2020.  Due to the current corona virus situation the rules will now be delayed for one year to April 2021.

​A YouTube video of the announcement is below.  

Yesterday, Rishi Sunak announced the Budget 2020​. What did he say, but more importantly what does it mean for you?

View the Ashgates Budget 2020 Report

With the end of the tax year looming there is still time to save tax for 2019/20.

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) are the legal minimum wage rates that must be paid to employees. Employers are liable to be penalised for not complying with the NMW and NLW rules.
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There are different levels of NMW and NLW, depending on age and whether the employee is an apprentice. The rates are due to increase from 1 April 2020 as shown in the following table:

The government has confirmed that reforms to off-payroll working rules for the private sector will go ahead from 6 April 2020.
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The off-payroll rules have applied to the public sector since 2017 and the government has carried out a review of the roll-out to the private sector. The review has now concluded, and the changes will go ahead alongside the implementation of measures to support affected businesses and individuals.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has announced that employees will be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from day one when self-isolating rather than having to wait until day four under the SSP waiting days rules.
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The change will be included in a package of measures, to be introduced by emergency legislation, to deal with coronavirus.