- Forgotten Ltd, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and former Senior Advisor to the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) write to Treasury to outline steps needed to help directors.
- £2bn – £6bn forecast cost of intervention pales in comparison to £55bn cost of furlough.
- Groups warn of threat to millions of jobs unless urgent action taken.
A coalition of small business leaders, tax experts and company directors have mapped out the measures needed to address a government shortcoming which has left thousands with no income support throughout months of Covid-linked disruption.
Many of those classified as self-employed by the Government have been able to claim grants covering the significant majority of their incomes if they’ve been impacted by restrictions since the Spring, and can continue to do so until April 2021.
By contrast, the Treasury and HMRC have stated that a comparable scheme for company directors would be impossible to establish because many pay themselves in dividends and there is “no way” to establish whether such income is derived from business activity or other investments.
ForgottenLtd, Re Legal Consulting Ltd, FSB and ACCA state in their letter to the Treasury that a Directors Income Support Scheme (DISS), founded on the principles underpinning the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, could be established by drawing on details regarding trading profits and remuneration submitted by business owners to companies house – largely through corporate tax returns – information that is already available to HMRC.
Stressing the importance of companies to the UK’s economic recovery from, the groups warn that “hundreds of thousands have suffered severe financial hardship, and are now at serious risk of closure. Up to 7.5 million of their employees are at risk of unemployment.”
They add that, without immediate assistance, “we will see fewer businesses in existence, and fewer jobs – these cannot be furloughed, as they won’t exist anymore.”
The collective forecasts that the cost of its proposed scheme would be between £2bn and £6bn, depending on its scope. Last month, the National Audit Office (NAO) forecast the cost of government income support for employees to be £55bn.
The latest statistics from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) state that there are just under one million non-employing companies across the UK and two million that are classed as micro-entities (employing 10 people or less).
Rebecca Seeley Harris of Re Legal Consulting Ltd, and a former Senior Advisor to the OTS, said: “This initiative shows how resourceful and creative small company directors are and they are the life blood of the UK economy. The government should be getting behind us by bringing in DISS to provide support at this critical time.”
Co-Founder of ForgottenLtd Georgina Broadhurst said: “The ForgottenLtd Campaign represents hundreds of thousands of hard-working, tenacious small business owners across the UK, who are currently looking down the barrel of a gun. After 8 months without meaningful support many businesses are on the brink of collapse or insolvency. Directors have found themselves having to take on debt or spend their life savings to stay afloat. The furlough scheme has supported their 7.5 million employees, but without financial support for the directors and the companies themselves, there will be no jobs for staff to return to by Spring. As a group of natural-problem solvers we embraced the challenge of finding a solution to the dividend issue and we hope the Treasury gives full consideration to our proposal.”
Head of ACCA UK Claire Bennison said: “We appreciate the challenges that the government is managing at this time, however, we have come together in partnership to find a workable solution to save jobs, and to level up the playing field. These local businesses are the ones who will play a significant part in our economic recovery and they deserve to be treated equally.”
FSB National Chairman Mike Cherry said: “For months now company directors – who have dutifully paid corporation and dividend taxation for years – have been told by the Treasury and HMRC that helping them falls into their too difficult box. Our fresh proposal demonstrates that, in fact, putting together a support scheme for directors in-line with what’s available to the self-employed is pretty straightforward – so much of the information needed is there in existing tax returns. These individuals are not statistics on a spreadsheet, they are real people with bills to pay and families to feed. It’s high time this Government – which claims to be pro-enterprise – helps them.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
1) Full copy of letter and proposal issued to the Treasury available on request.
About Rebecca Seeley Harris LLB (Hons) LLM MSc
Rebecca set up her legal consultancy, Re Legal Consulting Ltd, when the Inland Revenue brought in the IR35 tax initiative some 20 years ago. Since then Rebecca has specialised on IR35, off-payroll working and in the employment and tax status of the self-employed and personal service companies and, more lately, the Gig Economy. She works with clients nationally and internationally, the private and the public sector, with representative organisations and government. Rebecca was also seconded to the Office of Tax Simplification (an independent body of HM Treasury) as a Senior Policy Adviser to advise the government on employment and tax status.
About ForgottenLtd
The #ForgottenLtd Campaign exists to raise awareness of the lack of meaningful government support for the directors of small limited companies across the UK. We call on the government to address this disparity by extending COVID-19 finance support packages to our group. We are asking for parity and fairness for 1.9 million small companies and their 7.5 million employees. More information is available at www.Forgottenltd.com You can follow us on Twitter @forgottenltd.
About ACCA
ACCA is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. We’re a thriving global community of 227,000 members and 544,000 future members based in 176 countries that upholds the highest professional and ethical values.
About FSB
As experts in business, FSB offers members a wide range of vital business services, including advice, financial expertise, support and a powerful voice in Government. Its aim is to help smaller businesses achieve their ambitions. More information is available at www.fsb.org.uk. You can follow us on twitter @fsb_policy.
Matt Dickinson: 075 2580 1773 [email protected]. For regional FSB contacts please go to www.fsb.org.uk/regions