UK Government COVID-19 relief plan for businesses and the self-employed

As soon as the government announced the safety measures against the spread of the coronavirus, or as the WHO calls it COVID-19, many businesses and the people that rely on self-employed incomes started worrying about their livelihood. But it turns out the UK Government was introducing a £330bn relief package for businesses and a support scheme for the self-employed.

Now to the important thing, how will you Find if your business is eligible for Government support? and which package are you eligible for?

Firstly, the people that can benefit from the government relief package, are the self-employed, sole traders, limited companies and larger organizations. And to assist you to find out what Government aid package you might be eligible for, Tide developed a checker chatbot to help simplify the process: 

https://landbot.io/u/H-433415-I2H3OH1M5VF6S5J6/index.html

You can also do it to more than one Business if you have more.

To summarize it, The Government coronavirus support package consists of these measures for small companies and self-employed individuals:

  • Small business grants and self-employed income support relief 

The Small Business Grant plan intends to grant up to  £10.000 to small companies and businesses that already depend on small business rate relief or rural rate relief, which aims to keep primary services in rural areas available.

Small and medium-sized businesses in the United Kingdom will also be provided a Business Interruption Loan Scheme, loans that can reach up to £5 million, which will help fund them, especially if they had their profitability interrupted by wasted or late revenue caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

As for Eligible self-employed employees, it will be a relief that can take up to £2,500 a month. But they’ll first need to have had filed their tax reforms for 2018-2019, an 80 percent tax of their total monthly gross income over the last three years.

  • Rates and Grants for Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England

This Grant Scheme is applicable to businesses that deal with retail, hospitality, and leisure, with a rate value that’s between £15,000 and £51,000, won’t be rated for the tax year 2020-2021. These businesses will not need to apply or do anything, it will automatically be added to their council tax bill of April 2020.

  • HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) payment plan

It’s a scheme made for Businesses and self-employed individuals or groups in financial hardships and who owes money to the HMRC. These companies and people may be eligible for support or even getting a longer period of time to repay what they owe to the HMRC.

To check if you are eligible for these benefits please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19#support-for-businesses-through-deferring-vat-and-income-tax-payments

For more information please check out the sources :

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-supp

https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/faqs/ort-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19

https://www.gov.uk/business-support-helpline