L&M Finance Group
2020-03-23 14:50

СHANGES IN LEGISLATION IN CONNECTION WITH THE STRUGGLE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF CORONAVIRUS: INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Continuing our series of articles on the topic of on legislative changes due to coronavirus infection (COVID-19), we continue the series of articles on measures taken to combat this disease, but rather we are interested in the fight against its economic consequences. In this article we will briefly dwell on such countries as Cyprus and the United Kingdom, which are popular for Ukrainian business.
Cyprus
In Cyprus, the government has announced the following business support measures:
  • a two-month extension of the tax filing deadline, which should have been filed before March 31, 2020 (the new filing deadline is May 31, 2020);
  • temporary suspension for two months of the obligation to pay VAT without imposing fines as a measure to increase liquidity for business. This measure applies to:
  1. Enterprises with a turnover not exceeding 1 million euros, based on the VAT return submitted during 2019, and
  2. Enterprises whose turnover has declined by more than 25%.
  • Temporary reduction of VAT rates as follows:
  1. Standard VAT rate: from 19% to 17% for a period of 2 months; and
  2. Reduced VAT rate: from 9% to 7% for a period of 3.5 months.
The rate cut will be applied immediately after the vote on the relevant bill by the House of Representatives.
United Kingdom
On March 17, an unprecedented business support package was announced with initial guarantees of £ 330 billion.
In this country, a new lending scheme in case of interruption of the company’s activities will allow enterprises to apply for a loan of up to £ 5 million, while the government covers up to 80% of any losses without any fees. Businesses can access the first 6 months of this funding for free, as the state will cover the first 6 months of interest payments.
For enterprises with less than 250 employees, the cost of providing the 14-day statutory sickness benefit per employee will be fully reimbursed by the government. This will provide up to £ 2 billion to 2 million businesses to cover sick leave expenses.
Also, a special telephone line has been created in the UK to help businesses and self-employed individuals in financial difficulties and with outstanding tax obligations receive support in their tax affairs.
The UK government is introducing tax holidays for retailers, hospitality and tourism from 2020 to 2021. A cash allowance is also introduced for businesses of this kind. If such an enterprise has real estate with an estimated value of less than 15 thousand pounds then it will be eligible for a grant of 10 thousand pounds (if the estimated value of real estate is between 14,999 pounds and 51 thousand pounds - 25,000 pounds).