Monthly Archives: September 2020

Hot Business News Today

Where to find your £1,000 small business lockdown grant

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government has announced a new £1,000 small business grant for any small business in England affected by a local lockdown.
Businesses that are forced to shut because of local COVID-19 lockdowns will be able to claim up to £1,500 per property every three weeks.
Local authorities will administer the new small business local lockdown grant. You can find the full list of local authorities here.
See also: How to claim your £1,500 Kickstart Scheme grant
If a business occupies a premises with a rateable value less than £51,000 or occupy a property or part of a property subject to an annual rent or mortgage payment of less than £51,000, it will receive £1,000.
If a business has a rateable value more than £51,000 or part of a property subject to an annual rent or mortgage payment of more than £51,000, it will receive £1,500.
Extra discretionary funding
Local authorities will also receive an additional 5 per cent top up amount of business support funding to enable them to help any other small business affected by local lockdown which may not be on the business rates list. Payments made to businesses from this local authority discretionary fund can be any

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Small businesses should ‘only repay coronavirus debt once back in profit’

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small businesses should only repay state-backed coronavirus debt once they are back in profit, a centre-right thinktank has argued.
The taxman could claw back emergency COVID-19 funding once businesses are back trading at a profit, argues Onward.
This would be through a surcharge on taxable profits and shareholder salaries, paying off your Bounce Back Loan or Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan.
>See also: Where to find your £1,000 small business lockdown grant
The issue is pressing because, according to the ONS, one in five small businesses are already “zombie” companies – meaning the annual cost of servicing their business debt equals their profits.
And nearly one in 20 firms (4.3 per cent) are technically insolvent with liabilities greater than their assets, due to the levels of debt they have already built up since March. These firms employ an estimated 1.8m workers.
Debt levels have leapt during this year’s lockdown as businesses tapped the government’s emergency loan schemes to meet costs, leaving many overburdened with debt. About £53bn has been loaned to small and medium-sized businesses finance industry lobby group The CityUK estimates that £35bn may not be repaid.
>See also: Lloyds rapped for forcing Bounce Back Loans borrowers to open accounts
The

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Lloyds rapped for forcing Bounce Back Loans borrowers to open accounts

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Lloyds has been named and shamed with for forcing small businesses to open paid-for business current accounts to access Bounce Back Loans.
The competition watchdog said that Lloyds, one of the largest in the small business market, treated small companies unfairly by requiring them to open an account to draw down state-backed Bounce Back Loans.
The Competition and Markets Authority that 30,000 customers who had been running their businesses using personal accounts were told by Lloyds and its Bank of Scotland arm that they must open a business account to access Bounce Back Loans.
>See also: Banks ‘will be pushed’ into closing down SMEs unable to repay Covid debt
The scheme, which has underwritten £35.5bn of credit, provides lenders with a 100-per-cent state guarantee on low-interest loans to qualifying small companies. High street banks, rather than the government, have to provide the working capital.
Back in 2002, Lloyds agreed not to ask personal account customers to open a separate account if they wanted to borrow money from the bank – a practice known as “bundling”.
But when it came to Bounce Back Loans, Lloyds asked existing customers operating their firms out of personal accounts to open fee-charging business accounts

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Where to find your £1,000 small business lockdown grant

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government has announced a new £1,000 small business grant for any small business in England affected by a local lockdown.
Businesses that are forced to shut because of local COVID-19 lockdowns will be able to claim up to £1,500 per property every three weeks.
Local authorities will administer the new small business local lockdown grant. You can find the full list of local authorities here.
See also: How to claim your £1,500 Kickstart Scheme grant
If a business occupies a premises with a rateable value less than £51,000 or occupy a property or part of a property subject to an annual rent or mortgage payment of less than £51,000, it will receive £1,000.
If a business has a rateable value more than £51,000 or part of a property subject to an annual rent or mortgage payment of more than £51,000, it will receive £1,500.
Extra discretionary funding
Local authorities will also receive an additional 5 per cent top up amount of business support funding to enable them to help any other small business affected by local lockdown which may not be on the business rates list. Payments made to businesses from this local authority discretionary fund can be any

Read more...