For anyone who has absolutely nothing else to do. Help needed to rescue UK's old rainfall records:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/sci...environment-52040822

Basically reading the old records which have been scanned and transferring the handwritten figures in to a series of boxes on screen.

So not that exciting.

Help for the self-employed whose income has been wrecked.

My understanding of what the chancellor has been saying is that for those self-employed person whose self employment income has been the majority of their income will be entitled to a sum calculated as:

the average taxable self employment profit based on the last 3 years of submitted tax returns.
Say the last 3 years submitted returns have:
y/e 5/4/17 £16,257
y/e 5/4/18 £15,989
y/e 5/4/19 £16,378
the average of those is £16,208 a year or £1,350 a month
the grant is initially set for 3 months and is 80%
so £1,350 x 3 x 80% = £3,240.

Only available if the profits are under £50,000 as chancellor says that the better off should be able to have set aside money over the years.

For those whose profits are under £50,000, the grant is capped at £2,500 a month.

Where the person hasn't been self employed for all 3 years then the average is based on the period of self employment up to 5 April 2019. For those who didn't start self employment until after 5 April 2019 this scheme can't help as the 2019/20 tax return isn't due for ages.

HMRC have to set up the scheme, will contact those who are eligible and hope to pay the grant by a lump sum in June.

The grant is taxable and will have to go on people's tax returns in due course - looks as if on the 2020/21 tax return.

Chancellor has indicated that self employed people will need to pay same rates as employees in future years. That would be the national inurance rather than the income tax.

El Loro posted:

Yogi, I hope your bedroom reorganisation goes well

 Toys that the tiddlers have outgrown have been cleaned and put up the loft, craft boxes have been sorted and some stuff thrown out. All neat and tidy.

El Loro posted:

For anyone who has absolutely nothing else to do. Help needed to rescue UK's old rainfall records:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/sci...environment-52040822

Basically reading the old records which have been scanned and transferring the handwritten figures in to a series of boxes on screen.

 

So not that exciting.

 I think I’ll stick to clearing out cupboards 

Goodnight and sweet dreams, Ros 

Hug for the night owls 

Night all   

night yogi velvet moons summer if you pop in

Good morning everyone it's clear and bright again but a little colder. I was able to see Venus rising last evening as the sky was so clear. I hope your application goes smoothly Summer and the Chancellor's scheme for the self-employed will help.

Enjoy your day everyone

Good morning everyone

Another sunny day here but a cold start.

I think it's going to be a busy day for me contacting my self employed clients.

For @~Sparkling Summer~ HMRC's page on the scheme announced yesterday:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cl...ncome-support-scheme

I hope everyone has a good day

All my self-employed clients who are potentially able to make a claim have now been informed. Given them my estimate of what grant they might get.

Haven't contacted those who won't qualify. "Dear client, you won't be able to claim a grant" wouldn't be welcome news. Those are the people who have other income greater than the amount of self-employment income and those whose profits are over £50k.

Posted my round of church magazines rather than deliver them to each house. Questionable if delivering them would have been legal though posting them is OK as post offices are remaining open.

Washed my hands before putting them in envelopes and used selloatape to seal the envelopes rather than lick the gum. Printed off labels rather than writing out the addresses.

Post box is 2 minutes away so close.

Quite a lot of things are still questionable El. How about service engineers if one of your major appliances goes down?  Months without an oven?  Washing machine? Etc..

Anyway, lets not go there. Hope all are well and all guardian angels are on red alert     

Moons, hope you're okay. Likewise Yogi    

Velvet, I think that service engineers for a major appliance breakdown would contact people a couple of days before visiting (not in an emergency) and then contact the person immediately before going into a house (including emergencies) to ask if they were showing symptoms. People and engineers would need to stay at least 2 metres away from each other.

Good afternoon everyone 

I woke at 5.30am with stomach spasms. Fortunately, things have settled down now.

Well done El, on getting the church magazines out, whilst keeping yourself safe 

Velvet, I know you can get engineers to come out for things like boiler repairs so I guess it would depend whether the appliance was considered essential.

Stay safe, everyone 

Think and guess though  

We need this made clear and spelled out and it better be allowed.

Yogi, I'm glad that your stomach spasms have eased

Velvet, something like a heating breakdown would be considered essential to be dealt with. On the other hand, something like an annual boiler checkup wouldn't unless there was genuine concern. That seems to be the current situation.

Night night, sleep well, sweet dreams beautiful people  

Hope you are doing okay, Moonie 

Goodnight and sweet dreams, Moonie and Ros 

Hug for any night owls 

night yogi moons velvetsummer if you pop in

*night owls* I can’t sleep! 

El, thank you for your post on the self employed income support, this really is great news and it helps me understand what to expect. I will set aside the taxable figure of my lump sum immediately when June comes around. 
after a few days of worrying, I’m massively relieved at this good news, and today I received the small business relief grant!!!! That was fast. And it’s a huge weight off my shoulders. Even without the furloughed staff income, this grant will ensure the business survives for 12.5 weeks. 
I’m subsiding my own wage with personal savings for the time being- thank god I live simply enough to have slowly built them up. It pays off to not be greedy! 

El, do we have to pay the grant back after the lockdown or pay tax on it?? 

Meanwhile, I hope you’re all well, safe and coping okay. We’re all in it together xxx 

Good morning everyone it's a sunny morning here. I hope your tummy settles down Yogi. Do you adopt a bland diet today to help it calm down?

Enjoy your day everyone

Good morning everyone 

Weather is dry and bright 

Summer, I’m really glad things are looking more positive for your business 

Squiggle, I stuck to foods that are easy to digest yesterday and things are back to normal.

Have a good day everyone and stay safe 

Good morning everyone

Cloudier here than the last few days.

Yogi, I hope you had a spasm-free night

I hope everyone has a good day

I did, thanks El.

@~Sparkling Summer~ my understanding is that the grant is taxable rather than repayable. It looks as it if will need to be included in the 2020/21 tax return (not the return for the tax year we are in at present) so the tax would become payable by 31 January 2022. Far too early to know where it would go in the tax return. I'm guessing it will be included with your trading income so becomes part of your trading profit.

There's a long held tax principle regarding the receipt of grants - income grants are treated as income, capital grants are offset the cost of the capital asset (something like a large machine in a factory). This would come under the heading of an income grant in my opinion.

Yogi19 posted:

I did, thanks El.

That's good news

Good morning everyone 

Cooler but still dry with the odd bursts of sunshine 

Yogi, glad to see your feeling better 

Sweet, nice to see you’re out the way to sorting your business out 

Hi El and squiggle 

Although I don't think the grant for the self-employed is repayable I think it likely that there will be some mechanism to deal with anyone who has made a claim even though their income hasn't been affected, basically, they've been cheating.

I just watched the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup. Actually enjoyed it too 

Moonie, over the years I've seen all the better Marx Brothers films. Duck Soup is probably the best of them though others are nearly as good. The ones made is the 1930s are the better ones, their films declined in the 1940s.

I've also seen their 1929 film The Cocoanuts. It's quite watchable though is essentially a filmed version of their Broadway show so is somewhat stagey and technically a bit primitive  - it was billed as Paramount's first "all talking, all singing, all dancing" musical.

That's their first film which still exists. They did make a short film called "Humor Risk" in 1921. Long lost and unlikely ever to surface.

No prizes for naming the three best known brothers - Groucho, Chico and Harpo. The fourth was Zeppo who appeared in their earlier films. And the fifth one was Gummo who never appeared in any of their films.

From their 1931 film Monkey Business:

One of their Broadway shows was called "I'll Say She Is" (1924). It was never filmed though one scene was filmed as a promotion for their "Monkey Business".

I’m afraid I don’t find the Marx Bros films funny, it’s just not my sort of humour 

Yogi19 posted:

I’m afraid I don’t find the Marx Bros films funny, it’s just not my sort of humour 

Night night, sleep well, sweet dreams Yogi, Rosss et al   

Moonie posted:

Night night, sleep well, sweet dreams Yogi, Rosss et al   

Goodnight and sweet dreams, Moonie 

Goodnight and sweet dreams, Ros 

Hug for the night owls 

Yogi19 posted:

I’m afraid I don’t find the Marx Bros films funny, it’s just not my sort of humour 

same here yogi sorry!

night yogi and moonsie  summer if you pop in