Support for Nursery Businesses that Pay Business Rates
A business rates holiday will be introduced for nurseries in England for the 2020 to 2021 tax year. You will be eligible for the business rates holiday if:
- Your business is based in England
Properties that will benefit from the relief will be:
- Occupied by providers on Ofsted’s Early Years Register
- Wholly or mainly used for the provision of the Early Years Foundation Stage
This should automatically be applied by your local authority. If you have already received a bill for the next tax year, this should be re-issued soon.
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
This scheme is now live and can be accessed on the British Business Bank website.
The Government will now be paying all interest and fees for 12 months, instead of the original 6 months mentioned. The key features of this scheme are as below:
- Up to £5m facility
- 80% guarantee: The scheme provides the lender with a government-backed, partial guarantee against the outstanding balance, subject to an overall cap per lender.
- No guarantee fee for SMEs to access the scheme: There will be no fee for smaller businesses. Lenders will pay a fee to access the scheme.
- Interest and fees paid by the government for 12 months: The Government will make a Business Interruption Payment to cover the first 12 months of interest payments and any lender-levied fees, so smaller businesses will benefit from no upfront costs and lower initial repayments.
- Finance terms: Finance terms are up to six years for term loans and asset finance facilities For overdrafts and invoice finance facilities, terms will be up to three years.
- Security: At the discretion of the lender, the scheme may be used for unsecured lending for facilities up to £250,000. For facilities above this amount, the lender must establish a lack or absence of security prior to the business utilising the scheme. If the lender can offer finance on normal commercial terms without the need to make use of the scheme, they will do so.
- The borrower always remains 100% liable for the debt.
It would appear that some lenders have not updated their websites as yet to deal with the applications, but may still be able to offer support via telephone.
If you require our services to help you access any of the schemes mentioned over the past week, please let us know. We will do our best to ensure every business has access to all schemes available to them during these times.
SAS Accounting are a friendly accountancy team in Colchester, offering modern and fast accounting techniques to help streamline your business. If you need a hand applying for support or understanding what your business can claim, please give us a ring!
We will endeavour to keep you updated as changes to this information are announced.
