The Latest from HMRC on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (8 April 2020)
The following is the latest message from HMRC:
“HMRC have been called on by the Chancellor to urgently direct financial support to where our citizens and businesses need it most. The first wave of this is the launch of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
We need your help in this important work. Your influence and your reach across the business sector are instrumental in helping us ensure employers know what they can do to get ready to make their claim. Claims should not be made by phone, it will be an online service.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Chancellor announced a series of measures to support businesses and their employees. One of those measures is the CJRS, that allows employers to claim 80% of the wages of staff (up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee) that they have furloughed (been put on temporary leave).
HMRC is working at pace to deliver the service that will allow businesses to make a claim. Businesses, and agents that are authorised to act on behalf of clients for PAYE matters, will be able to claim. However, file only agents, including Payroll Bureaus, will not be able access the service due to data protection reasons.
File only agents
If you are a file only agent, we still need your support. You will need to help your clients, as you might hold information that they need to make their claim. Businesses will need the following information on each of their furloughed employees:
- National Insurance number
- salary, National Insurance and pension contribution information that allows business to calculate the claim amount.
Service launch
We (HMRC) are ready to launch on 20 April. This will be made public shortly, at which point we will be contacting businesses to advise them what they need to do. At this point we would welcome you also contacting your clients and offering yourselves as vital support during this process, either directly, if authorised, or indirectly if you are a file only agent.”
At Roches we are checking the detail behind this and will let you know what, if anything, our clients need to know to speed up their claims for CJRS.