General

The phone number for the COVID-19 helpline launched earlier this month has been changed to 0800 024 1222. Calls to the previously published number will be redirected. The launch of the new number will help increase capacity. 

The helpline will field questions and concerns from any business or self-employed individual worried about paying their tax due to Coronavirus disruption and to receive practical help and advice. HMRC has said that there are up to 2,000 experienced call handlers available to support businesses and individuals when needed.

For those who are unable to pay due to Coronavirus, HMRC will discuss your specific circumstances to explore:

• agreeing an instalment arrangement
• suspending debt collection proceedings
• cancelling penalties and interest where you have administrative difficulties contacting or paying HMRC immediately

The helpline opening hours are Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm. The helpline will not be available on Bank Holidays. HMRC say that these reduced opening hours are due to fewer staff being available due to the Coronavirus and to be prepared for a long wait. 
 

An interesting joint statement from the Government, Ofcom and the telecommunications industry has been published to help offer support to vulnerable consumers and those who may become vulnerable due to circumstances arising from COVID-19.

The UK’s major internet service and mobile providers, namely BT/EE, Openreach, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, O2, Vodafone, Three, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, and KCOM have all agreed the following commitments, effective immediately (from 29 March 2020):

• All providers have committed to working with customers who find it difficult to pay their bill as a result of COVID-19 to ensure that they are treated fairly and appropriately supported.
• All providers will remove all data allowance caps on all current fixed broadband services.
• All providers have agreed to offer some new, generous mobile and landline packages to ensure people are connected and the most vulnerable continue to be supported. For example, some of these packages include data boosts at low prices and free calls from their landline or mobile.
• All providers will ensure that vulnerable customers or those self-isolating receive alternative methods of communication wherever possible if priority repairs to fixed broadband and landlines cannot be carried out.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said:

It’s fantastic to see mobile and broadband providers pulling together to do their bit for the national effort by helping customers, particularly the most vulnerable, who may be struggling with bills at this difficult time.

There have also been other specific measures announced by UK operators to support their customers through this pandemic such as offering additional TV channels free of charge.

The spending limit for contactless card payments has been increased from £30 to £45 effective 1 April 2020. The change in the limit had been under consideration and has now been expedited as part of the industry’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak. 

The change will allow more contactless payments to be made reducing the need to enter pin numbers and handling of cash. Mobile payments such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, do not have an upper limit once they've been authenticated using biometric technologies such as a fingerprint or face scan.

The updated limit will take some time to be introduced at all retailers as many retailers are facing staff shortages and other pressures as a result of COVID-19. 

UK Finance, which represents the finance and payments industry, said the decision was made following talks with the retail sector. There have also been similar increases made in several other European countries. 

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) is a UK government department responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO seeks to ensure the smooth working of the devolution settlement in Northern Ireland.

A new press release, jointly published by the NIO, HM Treasury, and Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street explains the latest guidance for people in Northern Ireland.

Businesses in Northern Ireland can access the following national schemes:

• Businesses will receive government grants worth up to 80% of wages to keep workers in jobs. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will pay up to £2,500 per worker each month.
• Support for businesses through the Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which will provide loans of up to £5m, with no interest due for 12 months. This scheme will be delivered through the British Business Bank.
• Support for businesses who are paying sick pay to employees
• Support for businesses paying tax
• VAT payments for the next quarter will be deferred, so no business will pay any VAT for the next three months.
• Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, which will potentially allow self-employed persons eligible, to receive a cash grant worth 80% of their average monthly trading profit over the last three years, bringing parity with Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

There are also specific measures from the Northern Ireland Executive. Businesses in Northern Ireland can access the following schemes:

• COVID Small Business Grant – Small business grant of £10,000 to be issued immediately with a cost of £267m providing support to 27,000 businesses in NI. This is for all businesses with a NAV up to £15,000
• Hospitality, Tourism and Retail Sectors Grant Scheme – An immediate grant of £25,000 will be provided to companies in these sectors with a rateable value up to £51,000.
• All NI businesses will pay zero rates for the next three months (April, May, June).

Following the recent cut in the Bank of England base rate from 0.25% to 0.1%, HMRC has announced changes to the rates of interest they charge.  

The new late payment interest rate, applied to the main taxes and duties, took effect from 30 March 2020, when the interest rate was set at 2.75% (reduced from 3.25%). This was the first change since August 2018.

The rate of interest charged on underpaid quarterly instalment payments of Corporation Tax is 1.1% as of 30 March 2020. The rate has been set at 1.75% since August 2018 and was briefly reduced to 1.25% on 23 March 2020 before the latest cut took effect. 

The repayment interest rates applied to the main taxes and duties remains unchanged at 0.5%.
 

In a joint statement from the BBC and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport it has been announced that the changes introducing television licence charges for the over-75s has been delayed. These changes had been due to come into effect from 1 June 2020 but have now been delayed until at least 1 August 2020 due to COVID-19.

Sir David Clementi, Chairman of the BBC, said:

'The BBC board has decided to delay changes to over 75s licence fees. We are in exceptional circumstances. Now is not the right time. We are fully focussed on delivering our services to the public at this difficult time.'

The TV licence fee has not been payable by those aged 75 or over since 2001. If you are over 75 and have a free over 75 licence you will now be covered until at least 31 July 2020.

When the new rules are introduced, only low-income households where one person receives the pension credit benefit will remain eligible for a free licence which the BBC will pay. There will also be penalties for non-compliance and even those aged over 75 and living in a residential care home, supported housing or sheltered accommodation will be required to hold a licence.

Whilst this news is likely to be welcomed by those affected, there are ongoing protests to have the introduction of licence fees for the over-75s scrapped.

The launch of a new £500 million Hardship Fund in England was announced at Spring Budget 2020 by the Chancellor. On 24 March 2020, the Local Government Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP confirmed the Hardship Fund will provide council tax relief to vulnerable people and households to help those affected most by Coronavirus.

This means that the money will go to local authorities in England to enable them to reduce the 2020-21 council tax bills of working age people receiving Local Council Tax Support.

Councils can also use the funding to provide further discretionary support to vulnerable people through other support arrangements such as Local Welfare Schemes. This guidance helps provide clarity to councils on how they can quickly provide support to those households which require support.

Councils have also been told they will receive an additional £1.6 billion in funding to enable them to respond to other COVID-19 pressures across the services they deliver, including stepping up support for the adult social care workforce and for services helping the most vulnerable, including homeless people.

The funding for the Hardship Fund may need to be increased during the coming months as the full impact of COVID-19 become apparent.

HMRC has announced that taxpayers still using paper returns will no longer routinely do so. This is part of the efforts to encourage the use of online services and reduce the unnecessary use of paper.

Last year, HMRC automatically sent out more than 500,000 blank paper tax returns, while more than 10.4 million taxpayers filed their returns online. This means that approximately 6% of taxpayers submitted a paper return and that figure continues to reduce each year as the take-up of online services grows.

From next month, instead of automatically receiving a paper return, taxpayers who have filed on paper will receive a short notice to file. This notice to file will tell taxpayers that HMRC intends to communicate with them digitally and will also provide them with information about managing their tax affairs through their Personal Tax Accounts.

If taxpayers still wish to continue using paper returns, they can download a blank version or call HMRC to request one. Where HMRC is able to identify taxpayers, whose personal circumstances mean they cannot file online, they will continue to receive a blank paper return.

The use of paper will also be further reduced when HMRC stops providing more than three million blank P45s and 11 million P60s in April. The vast majority of employers already use their existing HMRC, free or commercial software to produce P45s and P60s for their employees.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has set up four new ministerial structures to coordinate, prioritise and respond to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The new implementation committees will focus on health, public sector preparedness, economy and international response. This new structure is in addition to the regular UK COBR meetings to take strategic decisions and review overall progress in the campaign to contain, delay and mitigate Coronavirus. The new committees will feed into daily C-19 meetings chaired by the Prime Minister and refine the measures agreed by COBR.

The details of the four implementation committees are:

• Healthcare: chaired by the Health Secretary to focus on the preparedness of the NHS. Notably, ensuring capacity in the critical care system for those worst affected and the medical and social package of support for those to whom we will be providing the new shielding regime.
• General Public Sector: chaired by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to look at preparedness across the rest of the public and critical national infrastructure, excluding the NHS.
• Economic and Business: chaired by the Chancellor, with the Business Secretary as deputy chair, to consider economic and business impact and response, including supply chain resilience. It will also coordinate roundtables with key sectors to be chaired by relevant Secretaries of State.
• International: chaired by the Foreign Secretary, to consider our international response to the crisis through the G7, G20 and other mechanisms, including like-minded groups, and the UK five-point plan.

The huge monetary and fiscal stimulus measures announced by the government and the Bank of England has seen amongst other measures interest rates lowered by 0.5% and a significant package of targeted measures to help support those affected.

One of these measures was the launch of a new £500 million Hardship Fund to help support economically vulnerable people and households. The details on this fund are hard to come by, but it appears the money will be distributed to Local Authorities by government. The government expects most of this funding to be used to provide more council tax relief, either through existing Local Council Tax Support schemes or similar measures.

This Hardship Fund will likely need to be scaled up over the coming months as the full force of COVID-19 becomes apparent. We would also be interested to see further information on who will be eligible to claim from this fund. We will publish more information on this scheme as it becomes available.