News

We are delighted to announce that Stewart Gilmour & Co are now part of the Xeinadin Group, an exciting consolidation of over 110 independent accountancy firms across the UK and Ireland.  While clients will still be dealing with ourselves at local level on a day-to-day basis, the access to experts in a wide range of specialisms as well as enhanced technical backup and resources will enable a more comprehensive range of professional services to be offered.  To facilitate the new structure our firm is now trading as a limited company, though the partnership will continue to operate in parallel for several years, primarily to continue statutory audits and for insurance run-off purposes.

Details have been announced by HMRC on how the Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is to be administered.  Payments of taxable grants will be for 80% of average monthly taxable profits for the 3 years to 5th April 2019, subject to a maximum grant of £2,500 per month. Taxpayers whose main source of earnings isn't from self-employment or who earn an average of over £50K per annum are ineligible.  Although you can currently check your eligibility at https://www.gov.uk/ in order to make the claim for the Grant each taxpayer will require to have a government gateway, which can be set up at weblink https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account. From there contact details can be input and from mid-May claims can be submitted on-line.  HMRC anticipate making the first payments 6 days after the claim is submitted, othwise from early June, though it should be noted that the claims are for March – May 2020. Further details about making claims are available at  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme#claim

Screen Scotland has unveiled details of a £1M development support package for Scotland's independent film and TV companies which can be accessed from 14 April 2020.  Applications of between £3K and £50K to develop projects over the following 3 to 6 months are invited to assist with forward-planning of productions for when Coronavirus filming restrictions are lifted.  This can run in parallel with Screen Scotland's Bridging Bursary scheme which went live earlier in April.  Further details can be found at screen.scot.

An emergency relief fund has been launched to assist active workers in the film, TV and cinema industries facing significant financial hardship as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, with donations having been received from the BFI, Netflix and the National Lottery.   The fund is being administered by the Film & TV Charity with time-limited applications being considered based on need and can result on one-off grants of between £500 and £2,500.  Further details are available online at :
https:/filmtvcharity.org.uk/covid-19-help-1dvice/covid-19-relief-fund/ 
Repayable grants of up to £2,500 can also be offered to those eligible for the government's Self-employment Income Support Scheme, but who are struggling with the wait before payments in June.

Following criticism of the initial restrictions on eligibility to the government's emergency loan scheme some relaxations have been announced by the Chancellor.  Loans of up to £250K are no longer to require personal guarantees or for potential borrowers to have first exhausted applications through other channels.  The scheme is also being expanded to apply to larger companies of up to £500M annual turnover with the borrowing ceiling raised to £25M.  Interest rates will not be capped, however, despite funds being made available to banks at near zero percent. 

Download more on our Coronavirus Support Schemes here.

As a designated provider of essential services under the Coronavirus emergency legislation Stewart Gilmour & Co., Chartered Accountants, will continue to operate as normal a service as is possible to its clients throughout this period. The firm's Glasgow office, however, will be closed and calls diverted to the Ayr office where certain staff will continue to provide urgent services including payroll processing and client enquiries about the business impact of Coronavirus. Regrettably face-to-face meetings are unlikely to be feasible so clients are recommended to communicate by email or phone call in the first instance. Since staff numbers are being reduced by social distancing measures, homeworking and furloughing as well as potentially self-isolation there may be some delays in responding to queries.

As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic the government has announced the postponement of the rollout to the private sector of its controversial IR 35 legislation on off-payroll workers . Implementation of IR35 will now begin a year later than intended from 6th April 2021 instead of 2020.