Sunak’s winter economic plan

In a surprise announcement, the government cancelled the autumn 2020 Budget. Instead, the chancellor delivered a winter economic plan dealing with the immediate economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis. The principal announcements were: the introduction of a new job support scheme; an extension to the self-employment income support scheme; a temporary extension to the reduced 5% rate of VAT in the tourism and hospitality sectors; a new VAT payment scheme for businesses that benefitted from the previous automatic deferral of VAT payments; enhanced time to pay arrangements for self-assessment 31 January 2021 payments; and an extension to the deadline application for all four coronavirus loan schemes.