Bounce Back Loan Scheme Goes Live and More on SEISS

As the Coronavirus Business Bounce Back Loan Scheme went live today, and HMRC updated it’s information and guidance regarding the Self Employment Income Support Scheme as well as a quick and easy online eligibility checker tool, below is the details of communication shared with our clients this morning – we hope you will find it useful…

Well what a month April was – let’s hope May brings some ease of lock down restrictions and a little sense of ‘normality’, whatever this much talked about new normal may look like.

At IN Accountancy the team has been working hard, predominantly remotely, or at a safe distance when in the office. We have maintained a presence in the office in order to facilitate clients dropping records off, making payments, and because Andy really doesn’t enjoy working from home himself – too much temptation to play the saxophone or go for a bike ride I suspect.

As a team we have embraced new technology, running our daily team meeting via Zoom and client final accounts meetings and tax review meetings via Microsoft Teams or Zoom. It’s been an eye opener and a learning curve.

We have been doing our best to keep all of you informed as best we can about what’s going on, particularly in terms of government support for businesses and individuals during these very difficult times and know that many of you have already received Small Business or Retail Grant funding and Job Retention Scheme furlough monies, which we hope will help you with your cash flow challenges until you are able to get your business operating at pre lockdown levels.

Last week I updated you about the Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan Scheme, and today I can share more details about this as well as about the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) which is expected to open for applications within the next couple of weeks.

The Coronavirus Business Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS)

This scheme is now open for applications, although not all banks have gone live today. 

The details I sent out last week remain unchanged, and you can view this correspondence here:

Coronavirus Business Bounce Back Loan

Applications again are being co-ordinated through the British business bank website, and you can find more details of the scheme here:

Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS)

Here’s how you make an application:

• Find a lender
  • and approach them yourself, ideally via their websiteStart with your existing provider, but you can also approach other providers.
  • Here is a link to the BBLS accredited lenders
• Online Application form
  • In which you self certify your business’ eligibility for a loan under the scheme
  • If eligible your business will be subject to appropriate checks in terms of Anti Money Laundering, Fraud and ‘Know your customer’
• Lender makes a decision
  • The lender may NOT take any personal guarantees from you, nor may they take any recovery action over any of your personal assets
• If you are turned down
  • You can still approach other lenders

Who can apply?

You must be able to self declare the following:

• Your business has been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic
• You have been trading in the UK and establishes by 1 March 2020
• You were not ‘a business in difficulty’ at 31 December 2019
• You  are not using he Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
• You are not in bankruptcy or liquidation or undergoing debt restructuring at the time of application
• At least 50% of your income comes from trading activity (except for charities or FECs)
• You do not operate in a restricted sector

You will need to know your turnover for your last financial year, and we would be very grateful if you would look this up in your last accounts before contacting the team to ask them to look for you – as I’m sure you can imagine, we are a little overwhelmed with all the queries coming through to us and getting through them just as fast as we can

The Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)

What’s new to tell you?

You can find our original communications regarding SEISS here:

https://www.in-accountancy.co.uk/2020/04/business-support-update/

HMRC have launched an eligibility checking service for the SEISS scheme:

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/self-employment-support/enter-unique-taxpayer-reference

All you need to do is enter your self assessment UTR which you can find on your tax return, or on any communication from HMRC.

You will be told immediately whether you are eligible to apply for the scheme and on what date in or around 14 May the online portal will be open for you to do so.

What we have now been told is that we, as your accountants, will not be able to make any claim under the SEISS on your behalf and that this is something you will need to do yourself.

So, what will you need?

• Your Self Assessment UTR  
  • if you do not have this find out how to get your lost UTR
• Your National Insurance number
  • if you do not have this find out how to get your lost National Insurance number
• Government Gateway user ID and password
  • if you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you check your eligibility online – you can do this here
  • IMPORTANT – PLEASE DO THIS AS A MATTER OF URGENCY.
  • We had a number of clients who struggled to make their furlough claim to HMRC as they had not correctly added a PAYE service to their business gateway account. It can take up to two weeks to set up your Gateway account, and unfortunately this is not something we are able to help you with.
• Bank account number and sort code you want us to pay the grant into
  • (only provide bank account details where a Bacs payment can be accepted)
• You will also need to confirm to HMRC that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus.
• If you claim the grant HMRC will treat this as confirmation you’re below the state aid limits.
• HMRC will check claims and take appropriate action to withhold or recover payments found to be dishonest or inaccurate.
• Once you have made your claim and had confirmation that this has been successful, you will need to keep a copy of all your records including:
  • The amount of the claim
  • The claim reference number
  • Evidence to support the fact that your business has been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic
• The grant will need to be reported on next year’s self assessment tax return as income, so please keep it with your other records, or pass details to Olivia (olivia@in-accountancy.co.uk – I’ve even written the email for you if you email her via this link ????)

I think that’s all for now – as always, if you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Ideally via email as I am finding calls more challenging to return in a timely manner.