The UK Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
This page provides guidance to members on the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (“CJRS”) which was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Friday 20 March 2020. The content herein has been derived entirely from HMRC’s guidance and communications directly to Chartered Accountants Ireland on the CJRS.
A similar page providing guidance on the Coronavirus Self-Employment Income Support Scheme is also available.
The Institute will continue to engage with HMRC on our members behalf in respect of COVID-19 supports and will share the most up to date information as it becomes available.
We therefore recommend that you bookmark this page and also regularly check the latest updates section of our COVID-19 hub.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, 9 March 2021.
The CJRS - recent developments and key points
Important key points, updates and developments in the CJRS are as follows:-
- Budget 2021 further extended the CJRS for a further five months until 30 September 2021;
- There will be no employer contributions required beyond employers NIC and pensions in the months of April, May and June 2021. This effectively means no change will be made to the current regime until July 2021;
- From July 2021, the Government will introduce an employer contribution towards the cost of unworked hours of 10 percent in July 2021, 20 percent in August 2021 and 20 percent in September 2021, as the economy reopens;
- Employees will continue to receive 80 percent of their current salary, capped at £2,500 per month, for hours not worked until the end of the scheme on 30 September 2021;
- Employees should continue to be paid for hours worked as normal by the employer;
- For periods ending on or before 30 April 2021, you can claim for employees who were employed on 30 October 2020, as long as you have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between the 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee. This may differ where you have made employees redundant, or they stopped working for you on or after 23 September 2020 and you have subsequently re-employed them;
- For periods starting on or after 1 May 2021, you can claim for employees who were employed on 2 March 2021, as long as you have made a PAYE RTI submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee;
- From 1 March 2021, how CJRS grants are calculated will change for some variable rate and/or variable hour employees;
- From November 2020 onwards, claims for each month must be submitted by 11.59pm on the 14th day after the month end (unless this falls on a weekend in which case the deadline is 11.59pm on the next working day);
- If a monthly claim period from November 2020 is not submitted within the 14 day monthly deadline, HMRC may accept the claim if it is late and there is a reasonable excuse;
- The deadline to amend claims for employees furloughed where there is an underclaim is within 28 calendar days after the month the claim relates to unless this falls on a weekend or bank holiday, in which case the deadline is the next weekday;
- If there has been an overclaim under the CJRS and the employer has not already repaid it, they must notify HMRC and repay the money by the latest of either 90 days from receiving the CJRS grant it was not entitled to or 90 days from the point circumstances changed so that the employer was no longer entitled to keep the CJRS grant;
- Failure to notify HMRC may result in interest and a penalty as well as repayment of the excess CJRS grant;
- HMRC can be advised of overclaims via the employer’s next CJRS online claim;
- If an employer has claimed too much but does not plan to submit further claims, they can let HMRC know and make a repayment online through their card payment service or by bank transfer;
- From February 2021, on a monthly basis HMRC is now publishing the names, an indication of the value of claims and Company Registration Numbers (for those who have one) of employers who make CJRS claims for periods from December 2020 onwards;
- Employers can ask HMRC not to publish their claim details if this could leave individuals at risk of violence or intimidation and the employer is able to provide evidence to support this and
- HMRC has advised us recently that they will now accept applications from agents on behalf of employers not to publish if this is supported by the appropriate evidence.
- Employees are also now able to check if their employer has made a CJRS claim on their behalf through their online Personal Tax Account;
- The CJRS guidance has been updated multiple times and includes a step-by-step guide for employers. See below for other useful links;
- A calculator is available to help employers work out the relevant percentage of employees' wages to claim.
The CJRS and agents
HMRC has provided detailed guidance in respect of agents seeking to making CJRS applications on behalf of employers.
Read how to check if you are authorised to complete a CJRS application for a client and also how an agent who is not currently authorised online can become authorised to do so.
The CJRS - tax treatment of amounts received
Payments received by a business under the CJRS should be included as a source of taxable income in the financial statements of the relevant business subject to either Income Tax or Corporation Tax, in accordance with normal principles, as these have been made to offset the deductible revenue costs of employees.
Businesses can therefore deduct employment costs as normal when calculating taxable profits for Income Tax and Corporation Tax purposes.
Individuals with employees that are not employed as part of a business (such as nannies or other domestic staff) are not taxable on grants received under the scheme. Domestic staff are subject to Income Tax and National Insurance contributions on their wages as normal.
The CJRS - contacting HMRC
The contact details for the CJRS are available on GOV.UK. HMRC advice is to only use these contact channels if you cannot get the help you need online.
HMRC expect applications to be processed and claims made within six working days. You are therefore advised not to contact HMRC unless it has been more than 10 working days since the claim was made and you have not received it in that time.
The CJRS - useful links
Make sure to bookmark the relevant CJRS pages on GOV.UK on your web browser to ensure you’re getting the most up to date information.
Links to the most up to date guidance and related sources of information are provided below:-
Members are also advised to regularly check the availability of and any issues affecting the online CJRS portal.
If you have a specific query or issue in respect of the CJRS or any other COVID-19 support which HMRC are administering, please check if your query is covered anywhere on GOV.UK or in our hub before contacting UK Taxation Specialist Leontia Doran.
Webinar
Hosted by the Ulster Society in partnership with A&L Goodbody, this webinar on April 23 examines many of the key questions which employers have about the Job Retention Scheme ("JRS") with some expert guidance from Leontia Doran, the Institute's UK Taxation Specialist and a chance to ask questions. Readers are advised that this webinar examined the JRS as it was up to 30 June 2020.
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