26-Nov-08

Helping your business during the economic downturn

Here are some news, ideas, help and resources you can access to help your business during these difficult times and keep you up to date.

Free health check for every small business
Business Link offers a free business health check for all small businesses. It’s an easy to use service and it will also lead you to plenty of advice on how to remain fighting fit throughout the economic downturn. For more information, or to use our health check tool visit their website

Business Payment Support Service
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have introduced a new, dedicated Business Payment Support Service designed to meet the needs of businesses affected by the current economic conditions. This will provide a dedicated helpline for customers who are worried about being able to pay taxes owed to HMRC (eg corporation tax, VAT, PAYE (Pay As You Earn), income tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs)). Businesses may be able to spread payments over a more affordable period.

HMRC Business Payment Support Line
Tel 0845 302 1435
Open Monday - Friday 8.00 to 20.00, Saturday and Sunday 8.00 – 16.00.

No small company rate increases until 2010
The planned increase in the small company rate (SCR) for corporation tax from 21 per cent to 22 per cent from 1 April 2009 has been deferred until 1 April 2010. Legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2009 to maintain the SCR for all profits, apart from ring fence profits, at 21 per cent from 1 April 2009 and set the fraction used to smooth the difference between the main rate of CT and the SCR (marginal SCR) at 7/400. Profits limits will remain the same.

Temporary increase in the threshold for empty property relief
There is to be a temporary increase in the threshold for empty property relief. For the financial year 2009/10, empty properties with a rateable value of less than £15,000 will be exempt from business rates.
Legislation will be introduced to give businesses more time to pay certain backdated business rates bills issued before 31 March 2010. Businesses facing such bills will be able to pay their liability for previous years in equal interest-free instalments over eight years, rather than immediately.

Small Business Finance Scheme
A temporary Small Business Finance Scheme will be launched to support up to £1 billion of bank lending. There will also be a separate £1 billion guarantee facility to support bank lending to small exporters, a £50 million fund to convert businesses' debt into equity and a £25 million regional loan transition fund. The government will launch, with Business Link, a new easily accessible portal to direct credit-worthy small and medium-sized enterprises who are experiencing problems accessing credit to the scheme appropriate for them.

Train to Gain
Train to Gain programmes in England will be extended to provide training and support to individuals in pre-redundancy situations to help them to develop the skills needed to move easily into a new job, either in their existing sector or in a new one. Skills Hubs - networks of local partners providing job brokerage services, training and other support - will be established in response to large-scale redundancies. The Rapid Response Service is to be expanded so that support can be made available to smaller redundancies as well as larger ones.

 
Author:
National Federation of Retail Newsagents
Publisher:
National Federation of Retail Newsagents
Date:
26-Nov-08
Sections:
News

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