This week’s update looks at upcoming job retention scheme deadlines, HMRC communications on the next tranche of self-employed income support scheme (“SEISS”) grants and the online VAT deferral scheme next deadline.
March 2021 CJRS claims
The deadline to submit CJRS claims for periods in March 2021 is Wednesday 14 April 2021, unless reasonable excuse is available for late submission. Amendments to March 2021 CJRS claims must be made by Wednesday 28 April 2021.
As a reminder, the UK Government will continue to pay 80 percent of furloughed employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,500 per month, to the end of June.
Employers must also continue to pay Employer National Insurance contributions and pension contributions on furlough pay.
Employers can check if they’re eligible and work out how much they can claim using HMRC’s CJRS calculator and examples. Employers must keep records that support the amount of CJRS grants claimed, in case HMRC needs to check them.
Holiday leave and the CJRS
If employers have furloughed employees because of the effects of COVID-19 on their business, they can claim under the CJRS for periods of paid leave their employees take while on furlough, including for bank holidays. Employers should not place employees on furlough just because they are going to be on leave.
If an employee is furloughed for only some of their hours, employers can count all time taken as holiday as furloughed hours, rather than working hours. This means employers can currently claim for 80 percent of their employee’s usual wages when they’re on leave.
In line with the Working Time Regulations, if a furloughed employee takes holiday employers should make sure they are calculating the correct holiday pay, and not simply continuing to pay the 80 percent they receive through the CJRS. They may need to top up their employees’ pay to 100 percent of their normal hourly rate or salary. More information is available on GOV.UK.
SEISS taxpayer communications
HMRC has written to some taxpayers where they need to make further checks on their eligibility for the next SEISS grant after processing their 2019/20 Self-Assessment return. HMRC has been making contact using the telephone number provided on the tax return, and they have asked for proof of identity and evidence of trade (three months of bank statements from the business accounts for the 2019/20 tax year).
From mid-April, HMRC will also contact taxpayers by email, letter or SMS if they may be eligible for the fourth SEISS grant, providing them with their personal claim date. Taxpayers can make their claim from this personal claim date in late April, until the claims service closes on 1 June 2021 for the fourth grant. Taxpayers should not apply before their personal claim date, as it will not be processed.
From mid-April, HMRC will also contact taxpayers that have previously claimed SEISS support but are no longer eligible due to either:
- ·not filing their 2019-20 Self Assessment return on or before 2 March 2021, or
- ·not meeting the eligibility criteria when their filed 2019/20 return is taken into account.
To be eligible for the fourth SEISS grant, self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) must:
- Have submitted their 2019/20 tax return on or before 2 March 2021; and
- Have trading profits that are no more than £50,000 and at least equal to their non-trading income, based on their 2019/20 tax return or an average of relevant tax years between 2016/17 and 2019/20; and
- Declare that they intend to continue to trade and are either:
- currently trading but are impacted by reduced activity, capacity or demand due to coronavirus, or
- have traded previously but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus (if they’ve been abroad and have to stay in quarantine or self-isolate, this does not count).
- Declare that they have a reasonable belief that there will be a significant reduction in their trading profits due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus.
Live webinars offering support on the fourth SEISS grant will be available from later this week. In addition, HMRC will also provide some dates for webinars tailored for agents. Further information on booking will be available in due course.
VAT deferral – next deadline
The VAT deferral new payment scheme opened in February for businesses who deferred VAT due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 and still have payments to make, or who are unable to pay in full by 31 March 2021. This includes those on Payment on Account and Annual Accounting schemes. Businesses must apply on or before 21 June 2021 if they want to join the scheme and further defer this VAT.
The later businesses join the fewer instalments are available to them. Businesses should have joined by 19 March 2021 to benefit from the maximum number of 11 instalments. The next deadline to apply by is Wednesday 21 April 2021 to benefit from making the payment over 10 instalments.
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