A Scottish guide for holiday park owners

Category: COVID-19Leisure - Posted On: Mar 26 2020


The current Coronavirus pandemic is so challenging for us all.

In order to be as helpful as possible to all owners, we have prepared a short note to guide you towards various forms of support you may require.  We will be on hand to answer any queries and will offer our support and guidance throughout this ever-changing landscape.

Grant support

Any grant support for which you might be eligible is being dealt with by your local authority, under the Business Support Fund.  Any grants received are, of course not repayable.  We have included further information, including links to some local authorities websites in our article here.

If your local authority is not listed, then please visit their website for more information.

Loan Finance

Since Monday 23rd March 2020, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme has been in operation. You can find out information on this here.

The scheme can be accessed through participating lenders, which can be found here.

In our experience, after submitting a couple of claims already, is that the process is quite straightforward.  Loan and asset finance support is a six-year package and overdrafts have a three-year term.

Loans are repayable and your lender may prefer to lend more money under more traditional loan routes.  Whichever method is open to you, you are likely to require latest annual accounts, management accounts up to date and perhaps projections showing the current problem and how you intend to trade through it.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

The Government has issued guidance on this scheme which essentially provides up to 80% funding (capped for higher earners) for staff who would otherwise have been made redundant.  These furloughed staff should not work for your business after that status has been implemented.  We expect further details to be issued over the coming days and we’ll update our guidance at that time.  Further clarification is expected for self employed taxpayers and also owner/managers in limited companies.

You can find the Government guidance here.

Tax payments

Any VAT payable in the period from 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 is not payable in that period and in fact can be settled up to the end of the financial year, typically 31 March 2021.  Any direct debits to pay those amounts should be cancelled immediately if you will not be able to pay.

For all self-assessment taxpayers, the tax payable on or before 31 July 2021 can be deferred and paid by 31 January 2021

Finally, if you are struggling to make tax payments, the Time To Pay service may buy you some time.  To discuss, you can call HMRC’s dedicated helpline: 0800 0159 559.

You can find information on all of these by clicking the link here.

Our holiday park specialists, David Morrison and Susan Beattie, are well aware of the challenges you face and we’ll do everything we can to support BH&HPA Scotland members through this extraordinary situation. We therefore welcome your calls and emails to see if we can help.

Contact David or Susan, or email BH&HPA@eqaccountants.co.uk for further information or support.