The government has announced that the scope of the Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will be extended to help new parents. The newly announced measures are designed to help new parents whose trading profits dipped in 2018-19 because they took time out to have children.
The change in the scheme will allow parents, including mothers, fathers and those who have adopted, who took time out of trading to care for their children within the first 12 months of birth of the child or within 12 months of an adoption placement, to use either their 2017-18 or both their 2016-17 and 2017-18 Self-Assessment returns as the basis for their eligibility for the SEISS.
Further details of the changes are expected to be published by the beginning of July. Claimants will also need to meet the other standard eligibility criteria for support under the SEISS.
The SEISS was recently extended by a further three-month period to 31 August 2020 with applications for the quarter due to open in August. The maximum grant for the three-months will be £6,570 (Previous quarter £7,500) paid in a single instalment. Claims for the first quarter (March-May 2020) will close on 13 July 2020, it has not yet been reported if this deadline will be extended for new parents.

The option to defer your VAT payments ends on 30 June 2020. The Coronavirus VAT payment holiday gave businesses the chance to defer the payment of any VAT liabilities between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020.
Businesses that took advantage of deferring their VAT payments should consider the following:                                                                                                  – Re-establish any cancelled direct debits in enough time for HMRC to take VAT payments due from 1 July onwards.
– Going forward, ensure that VAT returns are submitted as normal.
– Pay the VAT in full on any payments due after 30 June 2020.
It is important to note that where the payment of VAT has been deferred, any VAT due must be paid by 31 March 2021. Businesses can also make additional payments with subsequent returns. No interest or penalties will accrue on deferred payments that are paid by the new due date.
There is no application process required to request this deferral as permission is automatic and all VAT-registered UK businesses are eligible. The choice to defer VAT payments was optional and businesses could still choose to pay any VAT due as normal. The deferral did not cover payments for VAT MOSS or import VAT. HMRC has continued to process VAT reclaims and refunds as normal during this time.