Your Monthly Tax Update – July 2020

“Flexible Furlough” Starts 1 July

From 1‌‌ July the new CJRS “Flexible furlough” grant scheme starts, which will allow employers to gradually bring their furloughed employees back to work part-time. The new scheme will be in place until the end of October and the Government will gradually reduce the amount of grant towards employees’ furlough pay to 70% in September and 60% in October.

The grant paid by the Government via HMRC will remain at 80% of the employee’s normal pay for July and August but they will stop reimbursing NICs and pension contributions from 1 August 2020.

Further details on the operation of the new scheme were announced on 12 June 2020 and are summarised in a previous blog which you can access here.

Correcting errors in earlier furlough claims

You can now tell HMRC about an over claimed amount as part of your next claim. You will be asked when making your claim whether you need to adjust the amount down to take account of a previous error. Your new claim amount will be reduced to reflect this. You should keep a record of this adjustment for 6 years.

If you have made an error that has resulted in an under claimed amount, you should contact HMRC to amend your claim. As you are increasing the amount of your claim HMRC will need to conduct additional checks.

Second self-employed income support grants to be paid in August

On 29 May the Chancellor announced that the grant scheme to support the self-employed would also be extended with a further payment based on 70% of average profits for the 3 years ended 2018/19, limited to £6,570 rather than £7,500.

The eligibility criteria remain broadly the same as the first grant claim. Self-employed profits in 2018/19 must not exceed £50,000 and must be more than 50% of your total income.

If that test is not met, then the same £50,000 and 50% tests are applied to average profits and total income over the three years (or shorter period) to 5 April 2019.

Self-employed traders need not have claimed a grant under the old scheme to qualify for the August payment and are required to confirm that their business continues to be adversely affected by Covid-19. The deadline for making a claim for a grant under the original SEIS scheme is 13 July 2020.

You can find out more about the self-employed grants here.

HMRC may allow tax refunds for anticipated company losses

HMRC have recently announced that they may allow limited companies to make claims for loss relief and tax refunds even though the current accounting period has not yet ended and the corporation tax return has not been submitted. This will be available to companies of all sizes but they will be required to provide evidence to support the claims. Although the evidence required will vary from case to case, it will certainly include management accounts and most likely forward looking reports to the company’s board of directors. If you believe you are in this position then please contact us.

Refunds of quarterly instalment payments

Companies with profits in excess of £1.5 million are required to make quarterly instalment payments (QIPs) of their corporation tax liability much earlier than the normal payment date which is 9 months after the end of the accounting period.

For year ended 30 June 2020 a company with profits between £1.5 million and £20 million would be required to pay 25% of the estimated liability on 14 January 2020, 50% on 14 April with further payments due on 14 July and 14 October 2020. Where profits exceed £20 million the payments are due 3 months earlier.

If the same company now anticipates that it will make a loss for year ended 30 June 2020 they may be able to have the tax paid in January and April repaid and the further QIPs reduced to nil. Furthermore, HMRC may allow the losses to be carried back and set against the previous accounting period ended 30 June 2019 resulting in a further tax repayment even though the 30 June 2020 corporation tax return has not yet been submitted.

Note that the £1.5 million and £20 million limits referred to above are divided by the number of companies under common control so for example the limit would be £500,000 per company if there are 3 companies in a group.

Carry back of losses to previous accounting period

Where company profits are below the £1.5 million limit then QIPs will not be due but they may still be able to make a claim to set a loss against profits of the previous accounting period and obtain a tax repayment where losses are anticipated. We can of course help you make a claim and negotiate a tax repayment with HMRC.

If you have any queries in respect of this article then please do not hesitate to contact Jan Friend.

The content in this article is correct as at 07/07/2020. See terms and conditions.