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Coronavirus support developments

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The Treasury has issued a further Direction under the Coronavirus Act 2020 s 76, this time giving effect to the Job Retention Bonus (referred to as the ‘coronavirus job retention scheme (job retention) bonus’ in the Direction) and bringing the bonus payment within the scope of the FA 2020 measures on the taxation of coronavirus support payments (s 106 and Sch 16).

The Direction also modifies previous job retention scheme directions to impose a 30 November 2020 time limit for CJRS claims covering the period from 1 July to 31 October 2020.

HMRC has also published new guidance Check if you can claim the job retention bonus from 15 February 2021 which covers the following:

  • eligibility: employers can claim in relation to employees they have furloughed and kept continuously employed until 31 January 2021 (and who have been paid at least at the minimum income threshold are not serving notice);
  • transfers of staff: employers may be able to claim where employees have transferred under a TUPE transfer, noting that employees who transfer after 31 October 2020 will not be covered;
  • preparing to claim: businesses are advised to make sure they have reported all payments made to employees between 6 November and 5 February to HMRC through RTI submissions, and the guidance also highlights other administrative requirements including using an agent to make the claim on behalf of the business;
  • deadline: claims must be made between 15 February and 31 March 2021, and HMRC intends to publish details of how to access the online claim service by the end of January 2021.

Separately HMRC has updated its self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) guidance How different circumstances affect the self-employment income support scheme to clarify the position for those whose eligibility for the scheme has been affected by having a child. The guidance now makes it clear that where an individual’s trading profit or total income that they reported for the tax year 2018/19 was adversely affected as a result of having a child, they must ask HMRC to verify their eligibility before they can make a claim, on or before 19 October 2020.

Finally, we remind readers of some imminent business support deadlines:

  • 19 October: the deadline for claiming the second SEISS grant; and
  • 20 October: the deadline for notifying HMRC of excess SEISS/CJRS payments (being 90 days after 22 July 2020, the date of royal assent), if later than 90 days from receipt of the payment or 90 days from loss of entitlement to the payment.
Issue: 1504
Categories: News
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