Monthly Archives: May 2021

Hot Business News Today

Small business owners who duck out of repaying Covid debt face ban

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small business owners who wind up their companies to avoid having to repay Covid debt could be banned from being company directors.
Owner-directors found guilty of abusing insolvency procedures to duck out of having to repay Covid debt taken out by their small business could be banned for up to 15 years.
About 1.5m small businesses have taken out Bounce Back Loans through a scheme that offered up to £50,000 interest free for a year.
>See also: Nearly two thirds of Bounce Back Loans could go bad, says government
And the new beefed-up Insolvency Service will be able to investigate retrospectively to already wound-up companies.
The government promised to clamp down on any potential fraud in repaying emergency Covid-19 loans in the Budget earlier this year.
Officials are keen to sew up the insolvency loophole to curb any losses to the taxpayer as banks start to charge interest or seek to recoup loans once the repayment holidays on the government-backed schemes end.
>See also: Half of small businesses will never repay Bounce Back Loans, warn banks
Dissolution via strike-off or voluntary liquidation is only supposed to be used by a small business without a prior insolvency and only when the company

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Hot Business News Today

Some small business owners still haven’t received their Restart Grant

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
A number of business owners haven’t yet received their Restart Grant, despite being launched at the beginning of April.
The Business Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) said that many of their members in England still haven’t received a Restart Grant owed by their local authority. One member said that their local authority website promised the grant by ‘the end of April 2021’ which has since been changed to ‘the end of May 2021’.
The one-off grants, which were announced in the Budget in March, were made available to help ‘non-essential’ businesses reopen after lockdown ended.
Andrew Goodacre, Bira CEO, said: “We are disappointed to hear from members that there are ongoing delays with the distribution of the Restart Grants.
“In our view these should have been with business owners before the shops opened and now we are in May and still too many independent retailers are waiting.
“All the data is with the local authorities as this is not the first time grants have been sent to businesses and we urge all local authorities to re-double their efforts. Shops may be open, but the owners still need all the support that is owed to them.”
What can I do if I

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