This week's opinion: 7 January 2021

Welcome back. I hope you and your families were able to have some time together in the extraordinary circumstances in which we all found ourselves over Christmas and new year. 

In what now seems half a lifetime ago, but was in fact only in mid-July, the prime minister was predicting a significant return to normality by Christmas. Now it is clear that we are going to have to deal with the impact of Covid-19 for months to come. Even if the furlough scheme is not extended again – bearing in mind that on 17 December, the chancellor extended it until the end of April – we are still going to be making claims on behalf of clients up to the middle of May. That, of course, puts us into another tax year, with all of the complications which that entails, although at least this time we will not have to worry about the interaction with the employment allowance. 

One of my major concerns about all of the various fiscal support measures, welcome though they are, is that it will take months, if not years, of work to bring everybody’s tax affairs back in order. Reconciling the amounts coming in between grants and loans will not be straightforward, and the various deferrals of tax payments will all need to be unwound.

Even the best organised clients will need a lot of help in getting back on an even keel. There may be opportunities here to explain to clients the work and services that your firm can offer to assist them back on their feet.

January is always a hard month for our profession, and I fear that this year it will be even tougher than usual. 

Roll on the summer holidays...