Summary of the main points from Rishi Sunak’s mini budget announced yesterday lunchtime 8th July 2020:
No extension to the job retention scheme but instead a Job Retention Bonus – The Chancellor will pay businesses a £1,000 job retention bonus for every furloughed worker that is brought back and employed until the end of January 2021.
Workers must have been continuously employed and earn an average of more than £520 per month in November, December and January.
Plan for Jobs – The Chancellor has unveiled a new £2bn Kickstart Scheme for jobs. The fund will create government-subsidised jobs for unemployed young people and employers will be able to offer a six-month placement for people aged between 16-24.
The Treasury will cover 100pc of the National Minimum Wage for each young employee for up to 25 hours a week with firms able to top up the worker’s pay. The jobs must be new, they must be decent jobs and good quality jobs with employers providing training and support. If the employer meets these conditions, the payments will be paid for six months.
Some £111m will be invested to triple the number of traineeships with businesses offered a £1,000 per trainee payment. The grant will be capped at 10 jobs per firm.
For the next six months, the Government will pay businesses up to £2,000 for every new apprentice under 25. It will also pay £1,500 for every new apprentice above 25 hired.
A temporary VAT cut for the hospitality and tourism industry – VAT rate reduced from 20% to 5% from 15 July 2020 to 12th January 2021 on food, non-alcoholic drinks, accommodation and attractions.
Eat out to Help out discount – for the month of August 2020, meals eaten at any participating business, Monday to Wednesday, will be 50% off up to a maximum discount of £10 per head for everyone including children.
Eligible establishments are those in which food is sold for immediate on-premises consumption. This could include:
- restaurants
- cafés
- public houses that serve food
- hotel restaurants
- restaurants and cafes within tourist attractions, holiday sites and leisure facilities
- dining rooms within members’ clubs
- workplace and school canteens
Businesses will need to register and can do so from a simple website which will be open from next Monday and each week in August the businesses will be able to reclaim the money back with the funds in their bank account within five working days.
Please see the link below for more details and please note that an agent cannot apply on behalf of the business.
HMRC have advised that designing a scheme that allows tax agents to apply on behalf of the business would have taken much longer to deliver, at a time when speed is the priority. HMRC have also stated that they have worked hard to make the registration and claims process as easy as possible. So let’s hope so. Fingers crossed!
Changes to Stamp Duty – temporary increase in threshold to £500,000 to help revive the property market. Homebuyers will be temporarily exempt from paying the tax for the first £500,000 of any property price. The increase in the threshold from £125,000 to £500,000 is effective immediately and will run until 31 March 2021.
Green Jobs – a green recovery with concern for the environment at its heart – as part of that the Chancellor announced a new £2bn Green Homes grant – from September, households can apply for vouchers to make their homes more energy efficient and create local jobs.
The grants will cover at least two thirds of the cost, up to £5000 per household. For low income households, the vouchers will cover the full cost up to £10,000.
So lots of things in the budget and as we get more details, we shall post it here.
