LOANS
CORONAVIRUS BOUNCE BANK LOAN
- Loan available £2k - £50k. (Amount available is capped at 25% of your turnover).
- Flat rate of 2.5%.
- If you have taken a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL) already, you can replace it with this one.
- 12-month payment holiday - think do you really need it - anything that can be repaid during the first 12-month will exponentially reduce your interest charged.
- I cannot apply for you, any loan has T&C's and legal declarations.
- ADVICE
- Whilst it is a good deal, do you really need a loan, it is still has to be repaid.
- It can be used to clear other business debts and or purchase assets to help run the company.
- The loan is designed to cover business activities which does in included paying the owners their drawings or salary but not dividends.
- The loan is not designed to make investments for 12-months although I am sure some will.
- In the case of limited companies - the money belongs to the company, therefore if you were to invest the money e.g. Premium bonds that can only be held personally (not in a company name), the money taken from the company will be classed as a directors loan and if outstanding at your year end date:
- Will be subject to additional corporation tax of 32.5% (refunded 12-months after the loan is repaid).
- If the loan is >£10,000, you must physically pay your company interest on the loan to avoid a Benefit-In-Kind (BIK) tax on what's called beneficial loan.
- I don't know how it could be policed, but if you were unlucky to receive a tax inquiry, it could become discovered.
- Morally making money on the scheme would be seen as taking advantage, thus should any issues arise, we could be fighting against a stacked deck.
- If the money is just sitting there, would you be tempted???
I would not want to put off any genuine applications but don't be blinded, you need still need to crunch some numbers.
TRUE CASE STUDY
- A client came to me wishing to clear an outstanding loan balance of £14400 that 24-months left to run from a 7-year loan, so therefore the amount of interest charged in £££ is at the lower end.
- If the loan ran to term, the amount of interest in £££ remaining was £2000.
- If they took the loan - paid nothing for 12-months then paid over the loan term over 3-years offered - it resulted in extending the loan by 2-years and doubling their interest payable to £4000 - OUCH.
- If they took the loan - continued to make slightly lower affordable repayments during the interest free 12-months and stuck to the original remaining term of 24-months above - it resulted in cutting their interest payable on the final 2-years by half down to £1000 - WOW.
- In the right circumstances these loans can be very useful.
CORONAVIRUS BUSINESS INTERRUPTION LOAN SCHEME (CBIL)
If you are a small to medium-sized business (SME) you may be able to apply for a temporary loan, overdraft, invoice finance and asset finance of up to £5 million, for up to 6 years.
You may also be eligible for Business Interruption Payment to cover the first 12 months of interest payments and any lender fees. The government will give lenders 80% guarantee on each loan (subject to pre-lender cap on claims).
Self-employed people are also eligible for Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
You may be eligible for this scheme if you meet all of the following criteria:
- your business is UK-based, with a turnover of no more than £45 million per year
- you have a borrowing proposal which would be considered viable by the lender, if not for the current pandemic
- you can self-certify that coronavirus (COVID‑19) has adversely impacted your business