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Craftsmen, traders, very small businesses, SMEs: what help to deal with the coronavirus?

2020-03-19T15:46:36.009Z


Faced with Emmanuel Macron's promise not to drop small businesses, the questions of entrepreneurs are multiplying. The m


For the past week, announcements have come and gone for businesses to keep their heads above water in this unprecedented context of the coronavirus epidemic. Traders, artisans, freelancers, very small businesses and SMEs juggle government information, that of their institutional referents (federations, unions, accountants, etc.) and a reality that is sometimes a little different.

Partial unemployment

Also called technical unemployment, this measure allows a company which encounters difficulties, to avoid having to lay off its employees. Many of them are closed or in reduced activity, many companies use them. To do this, the employer must first take steps with the Direccte before the partial activation of its employees in order to obtain the state allowance which will allow it to compensate them.

Unavailable until Monday afternoon, the form for requesting prior authorization and partial activity compensation, necessary for unemployment to be implemented for its employees, is now downloadable from the service-public.fr website. . “If problems persist, companies have 30 days to declare partial unemployment; the application will be retroactive, ”said Olivia Grégoire, MP (LREM), the linchpin of the Finance Committee at the National Assembly. So you have to be patient and persistent.

“You have to create your account and wait to receive access codes to continue the process. And since Thursday, we are waiting, "said one of Okawa's managers, manager of automatic distribution of drinks and food products (chocolate bars, sandwiches, etc.) in Ille-et-Vilaine. Of its seven employees, five are affected.

For Patrick d'Hérouville, who has been running a maintenance and installation company for photovoltaic power plants in Pordic (Côtes-d'Armor) for ten years, the question relates in particular to the information received from his accountant this morning according to which "the corporate officers are excluded from the benefit of the specific partial activity allowance". Coming into this category he worries about whether he will be paid or not at the end of the month.

Aware of this situation which concerns a large number of business leaders belonging to this status, the chartered accountants alerted Bercy and asked for a suitable device. "It is likely that they receive specific assistance," said Alpha Niang, a chartered accountant for the firm KPMG, but for the moment, we have no answer. »Response that they hope to have before the end of the month, a bit like the aid of 1500 euros provided for the self-employed and self-employed. Otherwise, all these managers, employees of their company (but without contributing to unemployment insurance) will not be compensated for partial unemployment.

Postponement of deadlines and bank assistance

This is far from the only concern. "At the end of the month, we will have to pay the salaries, while waiting for the state to reimburse as it has promised to do. How to pay if you are short of cash and for how long? They ask each other. This is the reason why Olivia Grégoire demands an outright abolition of the Urssaf social security contributions for the month of March, rather than a postponement as announced by Emmanuel Macron, in her television address last week. "It is thus necessary to create a shock of confidence among entrepreneurs," continues the elected official. Because I put myself in the place of a small boss who says: I made zero turnover this month and my deadline of March will only be delayed… Of course, the President of the Republic said that carryovers could be turned into cancellations, but I think the message needs to be amplified. "

On this point, the French Federation of Banks (FFB) is reassuring. “The public authorities announced, last Thursday, the assumption of wages in the event of partial unemployment (Editor's note 84% of net salary) . If, despite this measure, people find themselves in a difficult financial situation, it is advisable to contact their bank advisor, preferably by phone, email or via the messaging of the mobile application or online banking site to examination of his particular case, and in particular to look, for the persons concerned, the terms provided for in the loan contract. These in fact provide, in many cases, for the possibility of activating, at the request of the client, modulation or delay extension provisions. "

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In a press release, the banks agree to set up accelerated credit instruction procedures for tight cash situations, within 5 days and special attention for emergency situations, postponing up to six credit repayments for businesses as well as the elimination of penalties and the additional costs of extension of deadlines and business loans.

1500 euros for some

To finance partial unemployment measures, the postponement of corporate tax and social charges, Bercy has announced that it will release € 45 billion in aid. In addition, a solidarity fund of 1 billion euros, matched by the State with the participation of the Regions, must be released for traders and craftsmen - particularly in catering, tourism and food - whose figure is less than 1 million euros.

These companies - 400,000 according to some estimates - could receive a lump sum of 1,500 euros as soon as their turnover shows a loss of 70% between March 2019 and March 2020. The allocation of these 1,500 euros could extend over several month and will be paid directly by the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP) after declaration. The application form is not yet available.

No insurance for epidemics

Those who would like to turn to their insurer for compensation related to the operating loss caused by the Covid-19, will be disappointed. “Insurance contracts covering business interruption (or additional costs) intervene in the event of damage guaranteed by the contract, which does not cover epidemics or pandemics. Also, the consequences of Covid-19 on the activity of the company are not covered by an insurance contract, ”said an internal document from an insurance company that we were able to read.

Another subject that remains unanswered for the moment: dry losses linked to perishable goods. "We have in our fridges for 10,000 euros of chocolate bars, sandwiches ..." says the Okawa manager, who manages 350 distributors. Some are perishable in 10 days, others in two or three months… “At the end of this crisis, we will have lost some or all of these products. "This dead loss will undoubtedly be at our expense," he worries.

A single document to summarize the measures

"Injecting confidence" as the elected official insists, could also, according to her, rely on "a single document summarizing all the provisions and measures to support entrepreneurs, independent. "I asked Bercy to work on this memo, so that it is quickly made available," she continues. In the meantime, entrepreneurs are invited to report their problems to the following Internet address: coronavirus.entreprises@gmail.com.

"In the crisis we are going through, it is not up to the anguished entrepreneur to go and find the information all over the place all by himself," insisted the elected representative LREM. "We must avoid accidental bankruptcies as much as possible, which will represent deadweight losses for the French economy."

Source: leparis

All business articles on 2020-03-19

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