Government Loans and HMRC Scams
Following a busy few days of new and updated support measures as a result of the second period of lockdown largely relating to income support, there are a couple of other matters we felt might be useful to be aware of as follows:
Bounce Back Loans / CBILS / Future Fund Extension
The application deadline for the above loan arrangements has now been extended to 31 January 2021.
As a reminder the summary details for each are:
Bounce Back Loans
A measure that has proved extremely popular, Bounce Back Loans of up to £50k (or 25% of turnover up to £200k) are available from a number of lenders (we’d recommend contacting your bank as a first port of call).
The loans of up to 6 years are fully guaranteed by the government, are interest and capital-free for the first year (interest at 2.5% per annum thereafter) and the cash is generally delivered within 24 hours of application.
CBILS
Likewise a popular measure, CBILS provides loans (and alternative forms of finance) to SMEs up to £5m - the arrangements can be up to 10 years, 80% of the finance is fully guaranteed by the government and they are interest and fee-free for the first year (interest at a rate TBC with the lender thereafter).
Future Fund
The Future Fund offers convertible government loans of between £125k to £5m based on matched funding from private investors, designed especially to support pre-revenue/profit businesses in high-growth industries.
Please contact us if you require further detail on any of the measures listed above.
Scam Communications
Something that has unfortunately become increasingly prevalent throughout the pandemic, we have recently been made aware of an uplift in scam calls and emails especially from people claiming to be from HMRC.
Those we’ve been informed of tend to be calls requesting payment of overdue tax in a fairly aggressive manner with serious consequences (such as prosecution or imminent police or bailiff attendance at properties etc.)
HMRC will NEVER request payment for liabilities by calling and asking for it – if you do get a call (or any other form of communication) along these lines our advice is to end it immediately and contact us.
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE OUT YOUR BANK OR ANY OTHER PERSONAL DETAILS.
You can also report any suspicious communication to HMRC using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/reporting-fraudulent-emails
If you have any questions regarding this or anything else please get in touch, and for regular updates, announcements and news please check our website (www.dsaprospect.co.uk) and make sure you’re following our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dsa-prospect-ltd