Coronavirus Business Support Grant

The Government have announced two grant schemes as part of the Scottish Government Coronavirus Business Support Fund. The first is a one-off small business support grant of £10,000 and is applicable for businesses in receipt of the Small Business Bonus Scheme or in receipt of Rural Relief. The second grant of £25,000 is available to ratepayers of businesses in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sectors. These grants originally excluded self-catering properties, however after pressure from the sector, self-catering accommodation businesses can now qualify if:

• The property is each ratepayer’s primary source of earnings
• The property is let for 140 days or more during the financial year 2019-20
• Applicants will be required to provide evidence of this and grants will be restricted to one per ratepayer

The Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers have acknowledged that this is a step in the right direction, although they have raised concerns that the proposal shows a lack of parity of support with other self-caterers in the rest of the UK, and self-catering requires additional eligibility compared to any other small business in Scotland.

The ASSC have suggested a relaxation in eligibility criteria for self-caterers, and are encouraging self-caterers to contract their MSP to ask for support with this approach.

Deferral of VAT payments

The Chancellor has announced that VAT payments due between 20th March – 20th June can be deferred to support businesses cash flow during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, all businesses with a UK VAT registration have until 31st March 2021 to pay any VAT deferred as a result of the announcement.

HMRC does not need to be notified if payment is to be deferred, it is possible to opt in simply by not making VAT payments due in this period. It is possible to carry on paying VAT as normal during this period should you wish.