HMRC Issues Urgent Warning to SEISS Grant Recipients

HMRC Issues urgent warning to SEISS grant recipients

HMRC have recently increased their enforcement regarding the Self Employment Income Support Scheme Grants, they are currently reaching out to businesses and saying that they must carry out the specified steps. If the businesses fail to carry out these steps when asked to via HMRC they must repay the amounts that they have received from the Self Employment Income Support Scheme grants.

What is SEISS?

The Self Employment Income Support Scheme Grant was introduced to help both partnerships and sole traders during the coronavirus pandemic. The first three payments of the grant were paid between March 2020 and January 2021, these grants are required to be included as taxable  turnover for the 2020/21 year.

What is being queried?

Despite having to include this as taxable turnover for 20/21, HMRC are currently querying 19/20 returns with businesses by sending out letters. Even though the grant payments didn’t start till March 2020, the conditions in which the SEISS grants were given out was that self-employment was included in the 2019/20 submitted return. Businesses who failed to submit their 2019/20 returns or filed the return but didn’t include self-employment are being contacted.

What could’ve caused this error?

It is possible that there is an error of emission that has caused this or it could be that there was a misunderstanding of the eligibility criteria of the SEISS grant.

What to do if you receive this letter?

If you receive this letter it’s extremely important that you immediately take action and submit the information that’s missing within the 30 day deadline. Otherwise you would have to pay back the SEISS grants that were received. If it is found that the business was not eligible for the grant in the first place, the grant will need to be paid back and a penalty may be incurred.

For further help and advice, get in touch with Cheylesmore Chartered Accountants!