This is a question that's understandably coming up fairly frequently. The answer is that the support payments going to businesses at present are indeed taxable, but that it's probably the wrong perspective to look at it from.
In the case of furloughed staff, the reimbursement from HMRC simply covers salary/NI/pension that you've paid out in respect of your employees. The money you receive is taxable, but the payments you've made are tax-deductible (as your salary payments to staff always are), and so they just cancel each other out. There's no net income there to be taxed in the end. You're really just the vessel that passes the money on to your employees and keeps them in their jobs.
In the case of a grant for Business Rates, the principle is the same, it's just the link between income and expenditure isn't so clear. The money isn't reimbursement of a specific cost - but it is intended to help cover business outgoings over these difficult months. So, in so far as you spend it on business overheads, again there's no net income to be taxed. Of course, if your business doesn't need the money, so some or all of it ends up simply as profit in your hands, it'll be taxable income for you, just like any other excess of revenue over costs. But that's fair, enough, right?
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