Month: March 2020

Mortgages If you are struggling to pay your mortgage as a result of your finances being impacted by coronavirus, you can apply for a three-month payment holiday. Interest accrued during the period will be added to the outstanding balance of your loan and can be repaid over the rest of the mortgage term. To apply for the payment holiday, you need to contact your lender, either by telephone or online. You do not need to prove that you are in financial difficulties. If you bought your property through the help to buy scheme, you can also apply for a three-month payment holiday on interest on the equity loan. Renters If you are renting and you’re worried you cannot pay your rent, there is help for you too. Legislation  has been put in place to stop you from being evicted for at least three months. To take advantage of the scheme, contact your landlord as soon as possible and...

Hi Everyone Here is the link to the government website for help to small business. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses Few points to mention There should be a major announcement in the next 48 hrs for help with self-employed income. In regards to staff, normal contracts apply so if you are considering making people redundant check staff contracts e.g do they need to be paid for a full month/ redundancy pay. In relation to the point above look at the employee retention scheme that runs from the 1st April avoiding those issues. For those limited companies corporation tax bills are due 9 months and 1 day after the end of their business year. These can be negotiated with HMRC into some kind of payment plan Make sure you apply for the rates relief with your local council Commercial mortgages can also b...

Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert fame has described 2020 as a ‘savings horribillis’ and it is hard to argue! A major high street bank has cut its main savings rate by 0.5% with cash savings rates at record lows. Most people’s average savings earnings are now around 0.4%! Often people are unwilling to invest cash savings yet are happy to invest in pension. This is despite many of the underlying assets and risks can be similar. There seems to be an acceptance that pension ‘has’ to be invested but savings don’t? There still remains a great deal of confusion with investors in regard to pensions and what options are available with their pension, on retirement, in regard to income and lump sum. The danger of pension freedoms is that many people are considering cashing in pensions, paying large amounts of tax and then putting that money in a bank when savings rates are at record ...