We are directors and want to furlough as not a penny coming in.

AdeJ

My wife and myself own a small conference and entertainment company. We are both company directors and pay ourselves a very basic wage and draw the rest on dividends.
We have a business unit and have asked if they can give us a grace period and they have refused and bank are asking for mortgage payments and barclays have been terrible, every time I call them, they talk as if nothing in the world is wrong, so this is where we are:

Basically we have lost ALL our work, soon as all this happened we lost all of our years work in 1 week of emails. Since March we have had an income of just £20 and thats it for the year. My wife has not long had an operation with an organ removal, so I am home schooling the children and doing house work (and WOW! its harder than being at work!!!!) the doors to our unit have closed, we have nothing, not a single bit of income.....I want to work, but can't while my wife is still in recovery.

I am not looking for huge amounts of money, just enough to pay our bills, mortgage, unit rent and food - if we furlough we can survive on 80% of our wages, but worried as directors we won't be able to get this. We are getting so many conflicting answers and we can't go on much longer without a penny coming in. Our accountant says we can get the business grant, but as nothing at all is coming in, i'm starting to worry.
 
All our money has been invested in the business, which on paper 4-5 weeks ago was brilliant. Even when all this is over I can't see businesses wanting to spend money on events etc for a long long time. Its 80% of our small wage or if we don't - then I don't know what to do.
We have NO other staff as all workers are self employed so its just us 2.

I am not sleeping, finding everything I do an effort as my head is in a huge panic if in a few weeks we can't pay the mortgage etc.....I am trying to be strong.....and protecting my family is all I want.

Jeremy535897

You should be able to get a mortgage holiday. Call the lender.
Your position is analogous to being self employed so see what the Chancellor says today.

HornetSaver

I suspect you would not be eligible for furlough based on what you've said. However the Government has specifically said that it is, today, outlining its approach for the self-employed.

Try to have as restful a day as you can in the circumstances, and keep your eyes on the news. I have no idea what it is that the Chancellor will unveil, but until he announces it there isn't really better advice than "wait until his announcement".

AdeJ

Thanks Jeremy,

I have called Barclays bank several times and they have told me that they can't do anything at the moment. One guy asked me what the reason was and he said that its not something he has familiar with at the moment. I have also filled in the form online.
I can see even if we do get it, that after the 3 months we are still going to be in a poor financial way.
We have our health at the moment which many do not have - so this is a blessing.

Luvoj

The OP is not self employed.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme covers all employees paid under the PAYE scheme, if the employer applies.

Luvoj

AdeJ said:

My wife and myself own a small conference and entertainment company. We are both company directors and pay ourselves a very basic wage and draw the rest on dividends.
We have a business unit and have asked if they can give us a grace period and they have refused and bank are asking for mortgage payments and barclays have been terrible, every time I call them, they talk as if nothing in the world is wrong, so this is where we are:

Basically we have lost ALL our work, soon as all this happened we lost all of our years work in 1 week of emails. Since March we have had an income of just £20 and thats it for the year. My wife has not long had an operation with an organ removal, so I am home schooling the children and doing house work (and WOW! its harder than being at work!!!!) the doors to our unit have closed, we have nothing, not a single bit of income.....I want to work, but can't while my wife is still in recovery.

I am not looking for huge amounts of money, just enough to pay our bills, mortgage, unit rent and food - if we furlough we can survive on 80% of our wages, but worried as directors we won't be able to get this. We are getting so many conflicting answers and we can't go on much longer without a penny coming in. Our accountant says we can get the business grant, but as nothing at all is coming in, i'm starting to worry.
 
All our money has been invested in the business, which on paper 4-5 weeks ago was brilliant. Even when all this is over I can't see businesses wanting to spend money on events etc for a long long time. Its 80% of our small wage or if we don't - then I don't know what to do.
We have NO other staff as all workers are self employed so its just us 2.

I am not sleeping, finding everything I do an effort as my head is in a huge panic if in a few weeks we can't pay the mortgage etc.....I am trying to be strong.....and protecting my family is all I want.

Self employed or disguised employees?

Jeremy535897

I'm rather surprised Barclays say they are not familiar with mortgage holidays???
Luvoj, you can't furlough yourself as a sole director because you still have duties. It is a form of self-employment, sometimes for tax, sometimes for legal protection.

GILL1993

Myself and my husband are both directors of our small ltd company, on our tax returns it’s shows we take £8424.00 in wages and the rest is made up in dividends , we are employees of our company so can we take get Coronavirus virus Job Retention salary ? Our accountant says because we  are directors we are not entitled but this seems very unfair and I’m not entirely sure he knows that to be correct, does anyone have anymore information on this please ?

Thanks 

bartman612

If you pay business rates or get business rate relief you would be entitled to the 10k grant so i believe.

Smimsie

Jeremy535897 said:

I'm rather surprised Barclays say they are not familiar with mortgage holidays???
Luvoj, you can't furlough yourself as a sole director because you still have duties. It is a form of self-employment, sometimes for tax, sometimes for legal protection.

Jeremy, if there are two directors, could one furlough the other?  so at least one director could get 80% salary?  Thanks for your thoughts.

calcotti

GILL1993 said: Our accountant says because we  are directors we are not entitled but this seems very unfair and I’m not entirely sure he knows that to be correct, does anyone have anymore information on this please ?

To be a furloughed employee you have to do no work for the business - as a director this is unlikely to be the case.