Missed the Monday 14th December 2020 claim deadline!

Monday 14th December 2020 was the last day to make a claim through the Job Retention Scheme for periods in November.

So if you have furloughed staff during the month of November, even if you won’t pay amounts until later, you needed to prepare and calculate your grant claim amounts for the latest 14th December 2020 else you may be too late.

If the employer misses the claim deadline

For claim periods from 1st November 2020, HMRC may accept late claims if the employer has:

• a reasonable excuse
• taken reasonable care to try and claim on time
• claimed without delay as soon as able to

HMRC list reasonable excuse examples:

• your partner or another close relative died shortly before the claim deadline
• you had an unexpected stay in hospital that prevented you from dealing with your claim
• you had a serious or life-threatening illness, including Coronavirus related illnesses, which prevented you from making your claim (and no one else could claim for you)
• a period of self-isolation prevented you from making your claim (and no one else could make the claim for you)
• your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online claim
• service issues with HMRC online services prevented you from making your claim
• a fire, flood or theft prevented you them from making your claim
• postal delays that you could not have predicted prevented you from making your claim
• delays related to a disability you have prevented you from making your claim
• an HMRC error prevented you from making your claim

Employer must contact HMRC to ask to submit a late claim. Do this as soon as you are ready to make your claim.

Opinion

The claim deadlines are now much stricter than before. Employers need to capture worked hours to facilitate the government grant applications.

Pay periods and grant claim periods often do not match, and they don’t need to.

Whether they align or not, whether payments are in arrears or in advance, whether period overlap months, it is essential that you submit your Calendar month claims on time or risk missing out on government support.

If you miss the deadline, contact HMRC as soon as possible.

PAYadvice.UK 11/12/2020 updated 14/12/2020