New Business Support Measures Introduced

The Chancellor has today announced new measures to support businesses through the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.  The headlines of his announcements are:
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• The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will end on 31 October 2020 as planned.
• A Job Support Scheme will be introduced for six months commencing on 1 November 2020.  To be eligible employees must work a minimum of 33% of their normal hours with one third of their unworked hours being paid by the employer and one third of the unworked hours paid by the Government.  An employee who works the minimum hours will receive at least 77% of their pay.
  • An employee on £1,000 per month who works the minimum 33% of their hours will be paid £330 for the hours worked, £223 by the employer and £223 by the Government totalling £776 of pay
  • An employee on £1,000 per month who works half their hours will be paid £500 for the hours worked, £166 from the employer and £166 from the Government totalling pay of £832 of pay
• The Self Employed Income Support Scheme is being extended on “similar terms” to the existing job support scheme.
• Businesses who deferred their VAT will no longer have to pay a lump sum at the end of March 2021.  They will now have the option to spread the deferred amount into 11 interest free monthly instalments.
• Time to pay arrangements for income tax debts up to £30,000 can be agreed over 12 months to January 2022
• The planned increase in VAT in January 2021 from 5% to 20% for the hospitality and tourism industry has been deferred to 31 March 2021. 
• The repayment of Government backed loans can be extended from six years to ten years.  Interest only repayments can be paid for up to six months in extreme circumstances.
• A new loan scheme for businesses will be announced in January. 

We are monitoring further Government announcements and will update accordingly once these have been released.
As always, we are here to help so please contact us if you wish to discuss any of the above.