COVID-19
Help and advice for employers, the self-employed and all small businesses for dealing with the COVID-19 crisis in the UK
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Correct as of 3rd April 2020 @ 11.30am
The latest Self-Employed Income Support Scheme information
This pays a non-repayable grant to support SE people.
- You get 80% of your avg monthly profit over 3yrs, up to £2,500 a month.
- To qualify your avg trading profits must be under £50,000 a year.
- Unlike the employee scheme, here you CAN keep working.
- It’ll be paid by the start of June as a lump sum backdated to March
- You do not apply, HMRC will contact you once they have assed your information.
Limited Company Director
No official scheme has been announced for Directors of limited companies, and given the other packages of support available it does not appear anything will be released.
The Treasury have confirmed that limited company directors can furlough their PAYE income, so this is the salary (NOT dividends) you have been paying yourself.
You can receive 80% of salary up to £2,500 month. and you can combine it with Universal Credit.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-universal-credit
If you do this, you can’t then work for your own company, but you can continue to perform your statutory director’s obligations, so keeping your compliance, VAT, PAYE, Accounts etc up to date is important
What’s not covered?
There are holes in the immediate support system, in which case Universal Credit is the option.
- Salespeople’s commission not covered in furlough
- Limited company directors’ dividends not covered.
- Limit cuts off self-employed help at £50,000 profits.
- No help for those who started self-employment this tax year
For your Employee what counts as salary?
Employers can choose to put any staff who were on their payroll on 28 Feb on ‘furlough’ (standby), and the Govt will cover 80% of their salary up to £2,500/mth – you can top it up to 100% but don’t need to.
For those with a fixed contract salary, the amount is easy to understand. It 80% of the normal salary figure
If income and hours vary, there was confusion over what counts. We now know:
Employees get the HIGHER of:
- What they earned for that job in the same month last year, OR
- Your average monthly earnings over the 2019/20 tax year.
The amount is based on basic salary including overtime, not including bonuses and commission.