Businesses providing food and drinks for immediate consumption can register for the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme and offer a 50% discount (up to a maximum of £10 per person) on food and non-alcoholic drinks to customers dining in. This scheme is to help restaurants to attract customers to dine in thus bring income to the business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can run the discount offer all day, every Monday to Wednesday from 3 August to 31 August 2020. You must register first before you offer a discount to your customers.
The benefit of this scheme is that you can claim back the discounted food bill from the government. HM Revenue and Customs will pay you back.
- restaurants
- cafés
- public houses that serve food
- hotel restaurants
- restaurants and cafes within tourist attractions, holiday sites and leisure facilities
- dining rooms within members’ clubs
- workplace and school canteens
The Eat Out to Help Out Scheme open for registration from 13 July 2020. Generally, you must wait 7 days from registration to make your first claim. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will pay your claim into your bank account within 5 working days. You can claim on a weekly basis. Your claim would be treated as taxable income under your business.
A dedicated helpline will be available to keen participating businesses from 13 July 2020.
Read Eat Out to Help Out Scheme guidance here.
Companies House filings during COVID-19 pandemic
Companies House also gear up to support UK businesses during COVID-19 pandemic. They will automatically extend your company’s filing deadline. This will help you to avoid a late filing penalty if you are unable to deliver your company accounts on time during this pandemic. You do not need to do anything. You just need to go to Companies House website to check your new filing deadline.
On the same note, your confirmation statement filing deadline will also be extended. You would have 6 weeks to file your confirmation statement. Likewise, for the events driven filings, you will have 42 days (6 weeks) to notify Companies House instead of the usual 14 days filing deadline.
In addition, Companies House also created an interim paperless filing service to accept documents which would normally require a live signature.
During this pandemic, you are encouraged to submit your documents online to Companies House. You can use the webfiling service to file the following documents to Companies House.
- Confirmation statement
- Company accounts
- Events driven filings i.e director resigned or change of your registered office address.
- Closing down your company.
To file online, you would require your company’s authentication code. The authentication code is the electronic equivalent of your company’s director(s) signatures. Keep safe your authentication code.
If you require help with your company’s filings, contact Our accountants. They will be more than happy to assist you.
