What happens if an employer over-claims through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme?
08 June 2020
HMRC recently updated its guidance on how to calculate 80% of employee wages to claim through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), in relation to what claimants who have over-claimed need to do to rectify the situation.
Anybody who has made an error in their claim which has resulted in the receipt of an over-claimed amount must pay the overpayment figure back to HMRC.
Claimants now have the option to advise HMRC about an over-claimed amount within a subsequent claim that they make. For new claims, a question will be included which asks whether the amount being claimed for needs to be reduced, to reflect a previous error. The new claim amount should be adjusted to account for the previous overclaim.
Claimants should keep a record of this adjustment for a minimum period of six years.
Where an error has been made in a claim, but there are no further claims to be made, the current guidance states that HMRC is working on a process to allow claimants to notify them of the error, and to pay back any amounts that have been incorrectly over-claimed. Guidance on this process will be issued once it has been established.
The information in this article is accurate at the time of publication. For all the latest information, news and resources on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting payroll professions, visit our Coronavirus hub.