The Association of Taxation Technicians report that the first wave of compliance letters regarding the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) were issued last week as HMRC moves into the post transaction review phase of the scheme. HMRC will be asking questions where they have concerns over the validity of claims. This could be because claims have been miscalculated, or claims were made for ineligible employees. HMRC have said that they will be concentrating their compliance activity on those who have been abusing the system. They will be focusing on fraudulent claims and not cases where the employer has made an innocent error. In the meantime, where an employer becomes aware of an error in their claim, then to avoid penalties they can contact HMRC to correct the position. The deadline for correcting an over-claim is the later of 90 days after the date: the employer received the grant they were not entitled to or the grant that they are no longer entitled to keep because their circumstances have changed. Provided corrections are made in time, penalties can be avoided.
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