The coronavirus is spreading throughout Europe, with special incidence in Italy and Spain. Both countries have taken exceptional measures to try to stop the infection, such as closing retail stores, with the exception of those that provide basic products and services.
To alleviate the enormous economic impact of these measures, the Spanish government has approved a package that includes aid to SMEs and the self-employed.
The government aid plan for companies
The aid plan that the government has
proposed has 200 billion euros, a budget that represents 20% of GDP. A
part of that money is destined to help SMEs and freelancers.
Tax moratorium
One of the first measures that the
government decreed to help SMEs and the self-employed has been the tax
moratorium. It applies to both VAT and Corporation Tax and it is estimated
that it could bring some € 14 billion of liquidity to businesses.
You can defer the payment of these
taxes up to 30,000 euros, provided that your volume of operations in 2019 was
less than 6,010,121.04 euros. You will have the possibility to defer
payment for a maximum of six months. During the first three months,
default interest will not be applied, then the usual interest will be applied.
Flexibility of ERTE
Many of the
businesses that have closed cannot afford personnel costs for an indefinite
period of time . That is why the government has made the ERTE (Temporary
Employment Regulation File) more flexible, allowing the company to temporarily
suspend the employment relationship with its workers.
Companies that file
an ERTE will not pay Social Security contributions and the
government will be in charge of giving employees unemployment benefit. In
the case of companies with less than 50 workers, the government will assume the
full contribution quota and 75% in the largest companies. The condition is
that companies will not be able to lay off workers who have been under an
ERTE in the next 6 months .
In the case of workers with
discontinuous fixed contracts from February to June, the company may receive an
extension of the bonuses of 50% of the Social Security contributions.
Financial aid line
for companies
In the package of government aid to
companies, a line of guarantees of public guarantees has been included to
facilitate liquidity to businesses that need it. In this way, the government will
become the guarantor of companies that need to request a loan from private
banks .
This line amounts to 100 billion
euros and is independent of the ICO credit line that
was approved in the first package of measures, a large part of which focuses on
businesses related to the tourism sector. A 2 billion help
line has also been created for exporting
companies .
Added to these guarantees is the
special line of support for guarantee companies launched by the Spanish Re-guarantee
Company (CERSA), through which the conditions of the guarantee will be
improved, giving a special 75% coverage to all guarantee operations for
financing the affected companies, for terms of 2 years or more. Thanks to
this greater support from CERSA, the SGRs will offer guarantees to help resolve
the financial tensions of the self-employed and companies affected by the
COVID-19 crisis, quickly and effectively.
Program to promote
telework
The government encourages all
companies to encourage telecommuting so that they can remain productive and
protect the health of their workers. It has approved a program to support
the digitization of SMEs and R&D plans to promote remote work . This
program has financing of up to 200 million euros through the ICO so that
companies can buy the equipment and software necessary to digitize their
activity.
Postponement of
loan repayment from the General Secretariat of Industry
If you owe money and your business
has been affected by the economic impact that the coronavirus is having, you
can defer payments to the General Secretariat of Industry. You just have
to make sure you do it within the voluntary payment period.
Facilitate access
to the extraordinary benefit for cessation of activity for the self-employed
If you are self-employed and have
had to suspend your services or close your business, this package of measures
provides for smoothing out access to the extraordinary benefit for cessation of
activity. You will be able to
access this benefit if you show a 75% decrease in billing , compared to the monthly average of the last
quarter. You will charge 70%
of the minimum regulatory base for which you are contributing for a month , unless the state of alarm is extended.