If you are worried you have claimed too much or too little from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

If you fear you have claimed too much (or not enough) from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, find out what you need to do next

If you’ve claimed too much – delete a claim for CJRS

If you want to delete a claim in the online service, you must do this within 72 hours. If you have made an error in a claim which results in you having received too much CJRS, you must pay this back to HMRC. You can either:

tell HMRC as part of your next online claim (your new claim will be reduced and you’ll need to keep a record of the adjustment for 6 years)
contact HMRC to pay the money back (you should only do this if you’re not submitting another claim)

If you have overclaimed a grant and have not repaid it, you must notify HMRC by the latest of either:

90 days after the date you received the grant you were not entitled to
90 days after the date you received the grant that you were not longer entitled to keep because your circumstances changed
20 October 2020

If you do not do this, you may have to pay a penalty. If you do repay any overclaimed grant, this will prevent any potential tax liability in respect of the overpayment of Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. HMRC have stated that they will not be actively looking for innocent errors in their compliance approach.

Find out more about when you may have to pay a penalty and other information, including:

how HMRC decides how much the penalty will be
when HMRC will not charge a penalty
how to appeal against a penalty

If you have not claimed enough – amending your claim

If you made an error in your claim that has resulted in receiving too little money, you will still need to make sure you pay your employees the correct amount. You should contact HMRC to amend your claim and as you are increasing the amount of your claim. HMRC may need to conduct extra checks.

Before 31 July, you must:

make sure to include all eligible employees on claims that you still need to make for periods up to 30 June
make any updates you need to on claims you’ve already made

After 31 July, you will:

no longer be able add an employee to any existing claims for periods up to 30 June, that should have been included on a claim submitted before that date
still be able to make amendments for any other errors that resulted in you not claiming enough

Government Guidance if you have claimed too much CJRS

HB Accountants are accountants for business. For financial and accounting guidance and support, please contact Keith or Karen. We’re still working hard to help you make the right decisions.

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The information contained above is for general guidance purposes only. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the contents are accurate, please note that each individual has different circumstances and it is essential that you seek appropriate professional advice before you act on any of the information contained herein. HB Accountants can accept no liability for any errors or omission or for any person acting on or refraining from acting on the information provided in the above

If you’ve claimed too much – delete a claim for CJRS

If you have not claimed enough – amending your claim

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