Briefing
20 questions on tax and COVID-19
The COVID-19 health crisis presents an unprecedented cocktail of challenges for businesses. Awareness of both the tax opportunities and the potential pitfalls is key and should play a role in every business’s COVID-19 response plan.
To assist with this, Peter Clements, Sarah Bond, Josh Critchlow and Laura McDaniel from the London tax team have written an article for Tax Journal considering the following key issues:
- The key challenges facing businesses as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and how governments are responding;
- Tax measures available in the UK to help businesses manage liquidity and how to take advantage of these measures;
- An overview of the UK’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS), including details of the tax treatment of the JRS for employers and employees;
- The VAT implications for suppliers where customers have defaulted on payments and whether any assistance for import/export VAT and customs duties is available;
- The UK tax implications for corporate actions such as raising new debt or equity and/or deferring or cancelling dividend payments;
- The tax issues to consider as a result of employees working from home and travel restrictions – including managing disruption to corporate tax residence compliance;
- How to communicate with the UK tax authority while the COVID-19 restrictions are in place, including an update on the UK Stamp Office’s emergency procedures, and details on ongoing tax compliance requirements;
- The impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on current and pending tax litigation and open enquiries; and
- What structural changes COVID-19 might bring to the UK tax code in both the shorter and longer term.
The full Tax Journal article is available here: 20 questions on tax and COVID-19.
