Furlough.

Thanks. If I had 16k savings I wouldn’t be so worried!!

I have a few grand which is mostly the income tax I’ll owe for the dividends taken. So I can use that and hmrc will wait. Forever if necessary.

The business also has cash left which is to cover the last vat and corporation tax bills. My accountant has warned me not to take it as the vat and corp tax will be instantly payable, the deferral can’t apply to my company as its being folded.

I wouldn’t mind but I didn’t avoid any tax and hmrc will actually be worse off with me under an umbrella, the additional income tax and ni contributions is more than lost by the loss of all the corp tax and vat they got before. I’d been there nearly nine years so couldn’t expense anything, so I had no reduction on my vat bills or corporation tax bills. Going umbrella cost me about £400-£500 a month - but cost hmrc about £80 a month too!!

I haven’t even had my first umbrella salary payment yet, it’s due this month. I don’t even know when!

 

Great post. For me also, but I live a lifestyle business . Not one that makes a load of money, but I live life on my own terms, but I'm still comfortable most of the time. As a single man I have few responsibilities, but a lot of people that rely on me for work. Some now have zero income, some top up their crap weekly income with a gig at the weekend. The real things in life are staring us in the face.

 

They need to do something about this. I take a large proportion of my wage as dividend too. I gave shares to two longstanding members of my team & have tried to support them. It has kicked me in the arse too. I hope sense comes about. As Parliament is suspended, nothing will become law for weeks. It's really ****** up for most self employed folks. I know loads going to the wall & I'm a whisker away myself.

 

It does sound like your situation is possibly worse than anyone else who posts on here, and I wish you well.
You probably had a spring and summer full of bookings and unexpectedly had the rug pulled from under you. I do hope help is available for you (some decent advice on The Martin Lewis Show last night which may help).

Let’s just hope the country has just temporarily pressed ‘pause’ and when they are ready to press ‘play’, we can all pick up where we left off, but with added impetus.

Good luck our resident man of music.

 

Stock market ? I'm talking about small employers. Real life example, very well run small company in construction. All sites closed this week, no work. Their working capital is tied up in the material they have on site and wages they have already paid. Main contractors are likely to extend credit period taken. The company has minimal cash reserves and will have to fund the wages until they can even recover the 80%. The portal to upload the furloughed workers is not even available and I think the delivery date is anticipated at 21 April. I have had so many conversations from worried clients. It's not black and white I'm afraid

 

I thought it was clear I was talking about businesses in general when I mentioned the stock market but anyway, you're dealing with this first hand, Dave, and I appreciate that for many small businesses in particular it's a nightmare. I'll shut up.

 

No please don’t shut up. It’s been a challenging week and I’m just a bit arsey! I should really have been a tad more diplomatic. I’m only an accountant, goodness knows what the folk at the sharp end are going through