Whitey Grandad

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.

Hypo, have you found anything yet about how you will receive payments?

I very much doubt that what you think he earns is true and if it is then he is into tax avoidance big time.

Me? Why me? I was simply giving one trivial example of why a total lockdown (for a limited section of society) can cause problems. It's a sensible move but all this should have been thought out weeks ago. Still no news about the business support schemes. Might be in place by May, which will be too late for many much as I applaud the provisions.

On this I agree with you completely.

The virus will not live long on your hands especially if you wash them regularly. There must be quite a bit of immunity or a vaccine would not be much use. It may not be complete immunity but enough to prevent a serious illness.

Key workers gotta get to work too. What’s crazy is reducing the number of services leading to overcrowding.

Every silver lining has a cloud. France you say? DIY? This is not the France that I know and love.

Ah. Ok. Won’t you get two sets of fans gathering outside? I guess that the latest “two’s company, three’s a crowd law would prevent that.

Why would it have to be neutral? I don’t like the idea of closed doors myself anyway. We’ve all played each other at least once so the outstanding games will mainly involve teams that are due the home leg of their pairing. Home advantage still applies to some extent since the players don’t have the travel disruption.

Phew! We can all relax. “The DIY and Hardware store sector has been categorised as an essential retailer by the government.” B&Q stores are closed today, Tuesday, but open after that. https://www.diy.com/customer-support/#icamp=HP_Hero_customersupport

Clear as mud. What counts as “absolutely cannot be done from home”? I can think of loads of examples.

The government aren’t doing anything at the moment. At the moment it’s all promises but no actions.

I’m not talking about companies that make goods and then hope to sell them. There are many companies that have contracts to fulfil and if they don’t supply these contracts then they so get paid and if they don’t get paid then they can’t pay their staff.

But if he says that only key workers can go out hundreds of thousands of businesses will go bust in a matter of days, not weeks.

But if that business employs several people who would otherwise lose their jobs? Please don’t mention the government’s lans to offer financial help. There are no details yet as to how that will be arranged, and anyway somebody has to be there to try to get the help. At both ends of the line.

“Obvious really” What is that supposed to mean? If you have a business that desperately needs some finance to see it through the next month how do you “do that from home”? If you have manufacturing contracts to fulfill, how do you “do that from home”?