Whitey Grandad

Always a pleasure

The scheme is open to very employer no matter what work they do so your dentist can ‘furlough’ any of his employees subject to the conditions that are outlined in the links that I gave. There is a question as to whether his activities count as publicly funded. “Where employers receive public funding for staff costs, and that funding is continuing, we expect employers to use that money to continue to pay staff in the usual fashion – and correspondingly not furlough them. This also applies to non-public sector employers who receive public funding for staff costs.” https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-could-be-covered-by-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme I’m not a true expert but I have spent the past few days trying to find out more details by speaking to my accountant and sitting through a Sage webinar.

Yes and no. A state pension and my factory unit is in a fund. The problem is that the company needs to be viable in order to pay the rent.

So the hedge funds can make a fortune.

Nah, that’s Dominic Cummings.

Families are not subject to the no more than three rule. You are not supposed to drive to your place of exercise but enforcement seems to vary from One police force to another. Lack of contact is going to continue for a while I’m afraid.

A lot of them are paid through limited companies.

It won’t cost the company anything to put an employee on 80% salary. All employee costs will eventually be covered including employer’s NI and auto-enrolment pension payments. Any arrangements must be subject to your contract of employment.

It was a rhetorical question.

He should have washed his hands more. How did he manage to get a test when the front line NHS workers can’t?

Yes you can but the company must have at least one active director. Whilst furloughed any employee cannot do any work for the company, but they can work for another company that has not furloughed anybody.

It doesn’t affect me but this only comes into effect from 1st April. If your MOT expires before then you need to get your car tested.

Hi Trousers, I have just had an update from HMRC and your daughter can be taken back on the payroll and then furloughed provided she was on the payroll on the 28th February. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

Glad you’re still with us Crabby and thanks for your extensive report. What did you expect with a username like yours?

That is the only way that it can or should be done. If he is getting remuneration in some other form then tax will be paid on it. Unless he is geting paid in cash and not declaring it. Getting paid a wage and then something extra on dividends does not avoid the tax. That is paid before the dividends are issued.

That is a back of an envelope calculation based on an overall infection rate of 80% and a Case Fatality Rate of 1% in a population of 67 million or so.

I have just been on a webinar with Sage that answered a lot of questions. You pay the employees in the normal fashion and submit PAYE information. The government will reimburse 80% of the total employee costs including NI and auto-enrolment pension payments later, by the end of April is their intention. "The 80% (£2500 ca) of wages to claim from the government is inclusive of ALL payroll costs. These would include Employers NIC and any Auto enrolment pension payments." "The latest guidance we have on this is to process the payment you're making to your furloughed employees through payroll, whether that's 80% or 100%. You may wish to separate furloughed pay to any top-up pay (over and above 80% of the cost of their wages). This will make it easier to report on the information you'll need when the online portal is launched." You still need to make VAT returns as normal but don't need to pay until the end of the tax year i.e. April 2021. This applies to VAT quarters that end between 20-Mar-2020 until the end of June. If you pay by Direct Debit then you should cancel this with your bank to prevent automatic payments. This is if you will have difficulties in paying. Sage will produce a fact sheet later with FAQs. I shall look out for it and post a link when it is available. Good luck everybody!

If it is not formal yet then I suspect she will have a chance. These are difficult times for all of us.

I think it's unlikely that she can be put back on the payroll. I am looking at the Sage website now desperately seeking advice. This link gives some details: https://www.sage.com/en-gb/blog/coronavirus-financial-support-business/#job-anchor-link "Your workers need to be currently working in your business – and not have been laid off or made redundant – in order for you to access the scheme. If required, they can take on other jobs with other businesses; doing so won’t impact on this cover – but they can’t do any work for the employer who claims under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme." There is a webinar if anybody is interested. https://www.sage.com/en-gb/coronavirus/

It can be backdated to the beginning of March, apparently.

Thanks for this. I await the government’s offering. I might have to put myself on furlough too although I only get a pittance.

Thanks, every snippet helps. One problem I have is that the person who handles the PAYE is one who would be furloughed. That is normally done as RTI through Sage Payroll so I assume there will be an update for that.

When it was first announced I saw a mention that it was up to the employer to decide whether to continue paying the 20%.

Well they’ve had several weeks to prepare but it has to be done properly. Our problem is that we haven’t been able to ship any product so we have almost run out of liquidity. Components that we get from China still haven’t arrived because of the Chinese New Year and then lockdown. Getting transport for them is also difficult. FedEx and DHL won’t go near the factories. I’m especially interested in this £10,000 grant we are supposed to be getting through the Business Rates system but that has to be claimed through Eastleigh Borough Council so we have to wait for a letter from them first.

All I can find is this,which says “aiming to get it done before the end of April” https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme/ I have questions about other aspects such as pension contributions, auto-enrolment and suchlike.