Author: Ketan Umretiya

A new Business Rates relief fund will provide a £1.5 billion tranche of support to businesses outside the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors affected by COVID-19.

Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses have not been paying rates during the pandemic as part of a 15 month-long relief which runs to the end of June this year. Many businesses that were banned from applying these reliefs have been appealing for discounts on their rates bills, arguing the pandemic represented a ‘material change of circumstance’ (MCC).

The government has rejected these claims for relief on the basis that market-wide economic changes to property values, such as from COVID-19, can only be properly considered at general rates revaluations, and will therefore be legislating to rule out COVID-19-related MCC appeals.

The government will instead provide a £1.5 billion pot that will be distributed to businesses in England affected by the pandemic and not on estimates of the impact on a property’s value. This method is designed to ensure the support is provided in the fastest and fairest way possible.

The funding will be allocated to local authorities based on the stock of properties in the area whose sectors have been affected by COVID-19. Local Authorities will use their knowledge of local businesses and the local economy to make awards.

Source: HM Treasury Tue, 30 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0100

The government’s £500 million scheme to kickstart film and television production entitled the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, helps UK film and TV productions struggling to secure insurance for COVID-19 related costs.

The Scheme allows TV and film productions that have been halted or delayed by a lack of insurance to get started or restarted.  Productions can receive compensation from the scheme for coronavirus related losses including filming delays from illness amongst the cast and crew.

Claims made under the Scheme can be backdated to 28 July 2020, the date the Scheme was first announced. The Scheme is available to both pre-existing eligible productions and to new eligible productions.

The funding is available to all qualifying productions made by companies where at least 50% of the production budget is spent in the UK. There is a fee to participate in the Scheme and a limit to the maximum claim allowable.

The deadline for productions to register for the Scheme and restart shooting has been extended until 31 October 2021. Claims will need to be submitted by 31 March 2022 for losses incurred up to 31 December 2021. HMRC’s guidance on the scheme has been updated to include payment terms.

Source: HM Revenue & Customs Tue, 30 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0100

HMRC’s guidance makes it clear that any business that makes an error in making a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) claim must pay back any amount overclaimed. Any claims based on inaccurate information can be recovered by HMRC.

If you’ve overclaimed a grant and have not repaid it, you must notify HMRC by the latest of

• 90 days after the date you received the grant you were not entitled to
• 90 days after the date you received the grant that you were no longer entitled to keep because your circumstances changed

It is important to note that there may be interest and penalties if overclaimed grants are not repaid within the stated timeline. 

The CJRS claim form allows businesses to advise HMRC if they have identified previous errors and over-claimed. If you use this form to confirm that your business has been overpaid, the new claim amount will be reduced to reflect this overpayment.  

If you have made an error in a CJRS claim and do not plan to submit further claims, then you should request a payment reference number and pay HMRC through their card payment service or by bank transfer.

The same options can also be used by employers who would like to make a voluntary repayment because they do not want or need the CJRS grant.

Having to repay HMRC is unlikely to be a cost that employers will have thought about, so it is important to ensure that all claims made for furloughed employees are accurate. Employers are required to keep full records relating to any CJRS claims (including adjustments) for a period of six years. HMRC has said that they will not be actively looking for innocent errors in their compliance approach.

Source: HM Revenue & Customs Wed, 24 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0100