We’re now a week into July and the pubs and restaurants are open, but I thought it would be worth reminding you of three important things this month for businesses.

Flexible Furlough

The first is that July marks the start of the new Flexible Furlough Scheme.

This allows you to furlough staff on a part-time basis and claim a grant from the Government to cover the wages while they’re off work.

We have published more detailed updates on this previously, so I won’t go into huge amount of detail here, but obviously it’s quite a big deal and does allow you to start bringing people back who you might not need full-time.

VAT is back from its holidays

The Government allowed all businesses to defer their VAT payments that were due in April, May or June until March 2021, but the payment holiday is now over.

From 1 July, you have to start paying again for new VAT bills.

What that means is that if you have a VAT quarter ended on 31 May, the payment due this week on 7 July must be paid.

If you pay by direct debit and cancelled the direct debit back in April, you need to restart it to make sure you pay on time.

Self-Assessment goes on holiday

Although the VAT payment holiday is over, there is a deferral of Self-Assessment Tax Return payments on account.

These are usually due on 31 July but, this year, everyone is allowed to defer the payment to 31 January 2021 with no interest charged.

You don’t need to do anything, it’s automatic.

They’re not letting you off paying it – just delaying it 6 months. But it’s handy for cashflow right now.  

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Any questions?

If you’d like a meeting or a Skype call to discuss this, please get in touch with your favourite Liverpool accountant

• You can ring us on 0151 380 8080
• You can email us at growth@jondaviesaccountants.co.uk