This month’s update looks at important deadlines for the job retention scheme, record keeping requirements, eligibility clarifications, publishing of employers information, updated guidance and eligibility for the self-employed income support schemes if you’ve stopped trading.

HMRC has also commenced post-payment compliance checks in respect of the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme and guidance has also been published as follows in respect of the scheme:

• Repay Eat Out to Help Out Scheme payments; and
• Eat Out to Help Out Scheme: receiving payments you were not entitled to

Self-employed income support scheme – cessation of trade

A form is now available to use if you received an email from HMRC, asking you to confirm if you’ve stopped trading so that HMRC can check if you were eligible for the grant.

Job retention scheme – 30 November deadline

The deadline for submitting claims under the job retention scheme for periods that ended on or before 31 October 2020 was Monday 30 November 2020. Underclaims for periods up to and including 31 October 2020 must also have been corrected by the same date.

Readers are reminded that a different time limit applies where an employer needs to correct an overclaim. This must be done within 90 days of Royal Assent to Finance Act 2020 (22 July 2020) or 90 days of receipt of the grant, whichever is the later.

Failure to notify HMRC of an overpaid grant may result in the imposition of interest and a penalty as well as repaying the excess grant. Amounts still due to HMRC will then be recovered through a special income tax charge on the employer. In order to act for your client in scenarios where HMRC conduct a check on their entitlement to claim CJRS, agents must be appointed for income tax purposes as recovery is made via an income tax charge.

Guidance on how to pay all or some of your grant back if you’ve overclaimed, or if you do not need the grant and want to make a voluntary repayment is also available.

Job retention scheme – eligibility clarification

Readers will be aware that the CJRS has been extended to 31 ‌March 2021 for all parts of the UK. From 1 November – 31 January 2021, the Government will pay 80 percent of employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. Employers and their employees do not need to have benefited from the scheme before to claim for periods from 1 November which opened for applications from 11 November.

This policy will be reviewed in January 2021 to decide whether economic circumstances are improving enough to ask employers to contribute more. It is therefore confirmed that the job retention bonus will not now be paid in February 2021 – an alternative retention incentive will instead be considered by the Government.

HMRC has also confirmed to us that the updated guidance for the scheme which now refers to “affected” instead of “adversely affected” is to be taken as having the same meaning as before.

HMRC’s response to us confirms there is no difference in meaning between the guidance and the Treasury Direction which still refers to “adversely affected” – “being affected in a way that means that an employer cannot maintain their workforce because their operations have been affected by coronavirus is the same as being adversely affected”.

For claim periods from 1 December 2020, employers cannot claim CJRS grants for any days that their employee is serving a contractual or statutory notice period, including notice of retirement or resignation. Employers can check if they’re eligible, and work out how much they can claim using the CJRS calculator and examples on GOV.UK.

Job retention scheme – monthly claim deadlines and record keeping

There are now monthly deadlines for claims. Claims for periods starting on or after 1 November must be submitted within 14 calendar days after the month they relate to unless this falls on a weekend in which case the deadline is the next weekday. You can claim before, during or after you process your payroll as long as your claim is submitted by the deadline.

Keep any records that support the amount of CJRS grant you claim, in case HMRC needs to check them. You can view, print or download copies of your previously submitted claims by logging onto your CJRS service on GOV.UK.

Job retention scheme – publishing employers’ information

HMRC will publish the names, an indication of the value of claims and Company Registration Numbers of employers who make CJRS claims for periods from February 2021 onwards. Employees will also be able to check if their employer has made a CJRS claim on their behalf through their online Personal Tax Account.

HMRC will not publish details of employers claiming through the scheme if you can show that publicising these would result in a serious risk of violence or intimidation to certain individuals, or any individual living with them. Those individuals include:

• employers that are individuals - a relevant individual can be the employer themselves, or any employee of the employer;
• employers that are companies – a relevant individual can be a director, officer or employee of that company;
• employers that are partnerships – a relevant individual can be a partner, officer or employee of that partnership;
• employers that are limited liability partnerships – a relevant individual can be a member; or employee of that limited liability partnership; and
• trustees of a trust – a relevant individual can be a settlor, trustee or beneficiary of the trust.

If you are an employer and think that a serious risk of violence or intimidation will come from publicising your name, company registration number and amount of claim, you will need to tell HMRC and provide evidence to support this, which could include:

• a police incident number if you’ve been threatened or attacked;
• documentary evidence of a threat or attack, such as photos or recordings;
• evidence of possible disruption or targeting.

Further details on how to request that HMRC do not publish details are available on GOV.UK.

Job retention scheme – annual PAYE schemes

Under the extended CJRS scheme, it would appear that annual PAYE scheme employers may now be able to claim, subject to meeting the relevant conditions. They were previously unable to do so as CJRS up to 31 October 2020 required a payment of earnings in 2019/20 which had been reported on a RTI submission made on or before 19 March 2020.

The extended CJRS is available for periods from 1 November 2020 onwards, for employees who were employed on 30 October 2020, as long as the employer has made a RTI submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.

Job retention scheme – updated guidance

The guidance for the scheme has also been updated since last month as follows:-