Well, we are certainly living in strange times. This is the third time we have written to explain what we are doing.
I will endeavour to keep this blog up to date but am also posting on our Facebook site which is somewhat quicker to do.
In due course both will be updated with details of the grants, loans and other help which is going to be available to our clients.
Victoria
24 March 2020
Dear Client
With the ever changing situation surrounding the Coronavirus we continue to revisit our planning.
Due to the efficiencies of both ourselves and our clients we anticipate very few accounts or tax returns will be affected in the short term. Additionally, we fully expect that the relevant authorities (HMRC and Companies House) will be relaxing the usual deadline and penalty regimes.
We will keep our website (blog) and Facebook page updated.
At present we are operating on a skeleton staff on the basis that certain workers in the financial sector are “key workers” eg, those involved in the processing of employee wages. We intend to maintain a restricted presence sufficient for us to keep this important function operating. This will also enable us to keep clients advised of the various government assistance programmes as and when the details become available.
Our landlords, ELDC, have withdrawn all of their support staff (ie switchboard and reception) so there is absolutely no client access to our offices. The telephones are diverted to Steve Clark.
In the event of a complete lockdown meaning we are unable to access the offices the main issue is going to surround the processing of client payrolls (and dividends where applicable). Due to the highly confidential nature of much of the data involved in payroll processing this is not something that can safely be dealt with by working from home – the GDPR implications are too significant.
The other area which could be impacted will be the submission of VAT returns and we will be contacting the relevant clients on an individual basis as necessary. All the VAT returns with which we assist are currently fully up to date with the next batch being those for the quarter ended 31 March. Hopefully the situation will become clearer before those are due for submission.
We will, of course, provide as much notice of any complete closure as we can and will be happy to answer any questions you may have in the meantime.
Only two emails are now monitored on a regular basis, those for Victoria and Steve.
Please send all emails to both addresses as this will assist in our response being as efficient as possible. If emailing Denise in regard to wages queries we would suggest you send the email to all three addresses.
