Cardens Accountants COVID-19 advice for clients and contacts.

1. Cardens Fact Sheet:
Covid-19 advice
Dated 18 March 2020

2. Index
1. Introduction
2. Statutory Sick Pay
3. Small Business Rate Relief
4. Government Grants (non repayable) – only for business with a premise
5. Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
6. IR35 for the private sector
7. Insurance – don’t forget to check
8. Advice for the Self-Employed
9. General advice
10.What are Cardens doing?

3. We are all feeling the impacts of Covid-19 in both our businesses and in
our daily lives.
Over the past week the government have been reacting to Covid-19 by
introduction several reliefs and support for your businesses to help
negate this extremely challenging and unprecedented time in our lives.
To help, we have taken the time to list these reliefs and more
importantly when and where you can access them.

4. Increased Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for sickness
absence due to COVID-19, which will refund up to 2
weeks (£94.25 per week) SSP per eligible employee
who has been off work as a result of COVID-19.
Employers should maintain
records of staff absences, but
employees will not need to
provide a GP fit note.
Eligible period for the scheme
will commence the day after the
regulations on the extension of
Statutory Sick Pay to self-
isolators comes into force (TBC).
The government will work with
employers over the coming
months to set up the repayment
mechanism as soon as possible
(possibly via the RTI system).
Therefore, if we prepare your
payroll, we can help ensure this
is claimed correctly.
Employment Costs

5. Small Business Rate Relief
Companies renting a single commercial property with a rateable value of less then £51,000
(normally £15,000) can get relief of 100% on their rates for 2020/21 (starting 1 April 2020).
You can find you rateable value by following the link and entering your postcode:
https://www.gov.uk/correct-your-business-rates
If you are in the retail, hospitality and leisure businesses sectors, you too will qualify for business
rates holiday even if your rateable value is MORE than £51,000.
Eligible charities and community amateur sports clubs may apply for relief of up to 80%.
Any enquiries on eligibility for, or provision of, the reliefs should be directed to the relevant local
authority. Guidance for local authorities on the application of the expanded retail discount will be
published by 20 March - https://www.gov.uk/contact-your-local-council-about-business-rates

6. Government Grants (non repayable) – only for business with a premises
Rateable Value under £15,000
A one-off non-repayable grant of £10,000 is being given to all business in receipt of
small business rate relief (SBRR) under the current scheme, i.e. for business with
rateable value of under £15,000 a year.
This grant is designed to help businesses pay for the ongoing costs of running your
business, like wages and rent during this difficult time.
The £2.2bn made available by the government is being pushed out to local
authorities in early April and if your business is eligible for SBRR, you will be
contacted by your local authority automatically – you do not need to
apply.
Rateable Value between £15,000 - £51,000 – full details yet to be
announced
Business with rateable value in this bracket will be eligible for a cash grant of
£25,000 via their local authority. Further details are expected within a few days.
HMRC will update gov.uk with details as these are decided.

7. Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
For additional support or for businesses that don't qualify for a grant, the government has
also introduced the temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme or (CBILS).
The value of these loans can be between £1,000 and £5m, with the terms ranging from 3
months to 10 years.
Currently, there is no official start date for application, but it is expected to go live in a
matter of weeks, so mid April.
40 lenders including the big four banks — Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS will provide funds
under the scheme as either loans, overdrafts or asset-based lending secured on equipment
or invoices. Therefore, it is worth keeping an eye on the banks website or talking to your
bank manager (if you are lucky enough to still have one).
To help support the banks, the government is guaranteeing 80% on each loan.
Furthermore, the first 6 months of the finance is interest free, as government
will cover the first 6 months of interest payments.

8. Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) – Continued
In regards to the application itself, this will likely be like any normal loan application.
Therefore, you will need to provide the lender with the relevant information to support your
application and we will be here to help.
But it is important to remember that the you will always remain 100-per-cent liable for the
debt.
It’s also worth noting that banks have warned that the £1.2bn set aside for this scheme may
be too small and the rules too complex for this relief to be truly effective. Therefore, if this is
something you wish to apply for, it is important to do so as soon as possible.
Finally, to be eligible for support via CBILS, the business must:
• Be based in the UK based, with annual turnover not exceeding £41 million.
• Operate within an eligible industrial sector – here is a list of Ineligible sectors –
• https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Ineligible-and-
Restricted-Eligibility-Sector-2017.pdf
• Have a sound borrowing proposal, but insufficient security to meet a lender’s normal
requirements.
• Be able to confirm that they have not received de minimis State aid beyond €200,000
equivalent over the current and previous two fiscal years.

9. Time To Pay service
The good news is this applies to all taxes, VAT, PAYE & National Insurance, Corporation
Tax and Self-Assessment Income Tax.
It’s also been reported that HMRC is not asking for or in some cases only requiring
minimal evidence to support the extending of their payment deadlines for the
foreseeable future.
For those who are unable to pay due to coronavirus, HMRC will discuss your specific
circumstances to explore:
• agreeing an instalment arrangement
• suspending debt collection proceedings
• cancelling penalties and interest where you have administrative difficulties contacting
or paying HMRC immediately
These arrangements are agreed on a case-by-case basis and are tailored to individual
circumstances and liabilities. Therefore, we advise you to have this conversation with
HMRC directly. However, you can of course discuss this with your account manager
before making the call.
HMRC’s dedicated helpline is 0800 0159 559.The helpline is open from Monday to Friday
8am to 8pm, and Saturday 8am to 4pm (excluding bank holidays).

10. IR35 for the private
sector.
It was announced yesterday
evening that this rule
change will be delayed for
12 month, pushing this back
to April 2021.
As a result, if you were working as
a contractor and your customer
deem you inside IR35 from the 6
April 2020? You can now continue
trading through your limited
company as you were currently
until 2021.

11. Insurance – don’t forget to check!
Although this is not a relief from the Government or HMRC. Please don’t forget
to check your insurance policy and check with them to see if you have cover for
forced closure of your business.
In many cases businesses are unlikely to be covered as most business
interruption insurance policies are dependent on damage to property, which will
exclude pandemics.
However, your business may have purchased a specific add on relating to
notifiable diseases, which may help provide the support needed in this difficult
time.

12. Advice for the Self-Employed
You can apply for Universal Credit if you are self employed or on a low income.
When applying as a self-employed individual you will need to show that;
• Self-employment is your main job or your main source of income
• You get regular work from self-employment
• Your work is organised – this means you have invoices and receipts, or accounts
• You expect to make a profit
Further details can be found here -
https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/self-
employment/
It’s worth noting that currently it is taking around 5 weeks for the first payment to be
made for successful application.
The amount of credit you receive will depend on your circumstance, but the credit
starts at £251.77 a month for a single person under 25 year of age.
You can complete the online application for here - https://www.gov.uk/apply-
universal-credit

13. General Advice
It’s also important to consider what measures you can do to help protect your
business at this time.
This to consider are;
• Reducing costs – Ask yourself if there is anything you can do without right now?
Or any projects that can wait until after this crisis.
• Staff – It is worth checking your contracts or with your HR department/advisor
about action you can take to reduce your staffing costs during this time.
• Reduced hours – Consider reducing your fixed overheads by working from home
or closing. If the premises running costs is more than the income it generates, itis
worth looking at closing or reducing the hours to keep the overheads to a
minimum.
• Payment holiday – Do any of your contracts contain payment holidays, for
example rent or finance? If they do, it maybe a good idea to activate them now to
help reduce your outgoings.

14. What are Cardens doing?
We recognise these are exceptional times and despite the incredibly difficult time that
we are all enduring, Cardens are committed to doing everything within our power to
ensure we are still here to support you, when you need it most.
In order to achieve this we have ensured that all staff can work from home and have
access to all the tools required for us to support you as we do currently.
Furthermore, to help reduce the health impact for our staff and committee from the
18th March 2020, we will be introducing a 50:50 timetable for all staff. This means
that at any given time 50% of our staff will be working from home until further
notice. Therefore, the best way to contact your account manager is via email.
We have also cancelled all face to face meetings, with the offer of holding these as
video conferencing instead.
Finally, all Cardens Events suspended until further notice. So please keep look out on
both our social media pages and Eventbrite page for all new dates for these
cancelled events.

15. Finally: If you have any further questions,
please do not hesitate to contact
your account manager here at
Cardens via email.