Basic Payment Early Loan Scheme

The Scottish Government has announced that they will again be offering an early Basic Payment loan scheme to eligible farmers. A loan of up to 95%, a 5% increase on the previous year, will be paid from early October.

Farmers should expect to see the loan paperwork in the post from early September and they should look to take up this offer as soon as possible. As with previous years, farmers who do not take up the loan option could face a potential wait till the end of June 2020 before they receive any Basic Payment income.

The actual timing of the receipt should make no difference to the recognition of the income in your accounts, which should only be recognised when all qualifying criteria have been met at the end of December 2019. Your accounts should therefore only include one Basic Payment receipt each financial year.

Robert Young, one of our EQ Agriculture specialist’s, commented,

“Early receipt of the Basic Payment will be a welcome cashflow boost to the agricultural sector at a time when a number of commodity prices are under pressure. I would encourage all eligible farmers to apply for the loan scheme payments.”

If you have any queries regarding the loan scheme or any other matter, please contact a member of our EQ Agriculture team via agriculture@eqaccountants.co.uk or call 01307 474274 / 01334 654044.