Hi Today I want to keep it brief and only talk about TWO things: FURLOUGHED STAFF & DIRECTORS and HOW WE CAN SUPPORT EACH OTHER. Furloughed Staff I've been asked by SO MANY people how the numbers on this will actually work, so I've created a quick example and put it at the head of this email so you don't miss it 🧮. This applies to staff whose normal monthly salary was £3,125pm or less AND you pay them 80% or less of their salary whilst furloughed. As every situation is different I'm happy to talk you through the calculations for your own business if you want to give me a call. As you can see, there is ZERO overall cost to the employer. BUT remember you have to pay the staff as normal and claim this back from HMRC when their portal is ready - probably in May. So this will affect your cash flow in the short term. Can I Furlough Myself? Following pressure from the business community (and the changing-his-mind-and-back-again from Martin Lewis 🤦♂️), the govt has now published their guidance on whether the 80% grant will apply to directors. They have confirmed THE GRANT WILL APPLY TO DIRECTORS where the other conditions are also met. Woop woop! 🥂 The big question, of course, was how a Director could do no work whatsoever whilst on furlough if they are the only director of the company? Direct from the horse's mouth: Where furloughed directors need to...fulfil the statutory obligations they owe to their company, they may do so provided they do no more than would reasonably be judged necessary for that purpose. They should not...generate commercial revenue or provides services to or on behalf of their company. This also applies to salaried individuals who are directors of their own personal service company (PSC). Assuming you have effectively shut the doors for the time being, I cannot see a problem with running the payroll, making sure suppliers are paid, applying for the various grants available and so on in the background. Certainly, if your company year-end was 31st March, you can absolutely use this time to get your records together and send them to your accountant! 🙏 Of course, you'll only be getting 80% of your salary, which for most directors will be less than £600. So you must ask yourself - can I generate £600 income this month by staying open for business? Supporting Each Other I know it looks bleak out there right now, but this email goes out to hundreds of people from diverse business backgrounds, mainly in the south west. It made me think; if your business has been hammered by CV19 but is still able to continue trading in some capacity, can we use the power of everyone in this group, and their contacts, to generate some work for you? Regardless of whether you're a client or not - it really doesn't matter - if you want to tell me about your business, how it's been affected, how we can help and what work you are still able to offer under lockdown then, perhaps, someone might just be after that right now. Please get in touch if we can help share what you can offer. I hope you've been enjoying the various penguin photos in our emails. These were all taken for me by local photographer Aisling Magill, who I've chosen to be the first business we're going to feature here: |