COVID-19 – Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
One of the measures that the Chancellor has announced to protect jobs and businesses throughout the COVID-19 outbreak was the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This allows a business to claim 80% of the wages of staff, up to a maximum of £2500 per month, that have been furloughed as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak.
HMRC are working quickly to have the service available on the April 20th, 2020 so businesses can make applications to receive funding, payments are expected to be made to businesses by the first week of June 2020.
This will be a new online portal that will be made available to businesses and accountants that are the agents for their clients. If you are a file only agent, you will not be able to access the portal on behalf of your client.
This will be a self-service portal; guidance will be provided by HMRC on how to make the application, but demand will be high for this service so delays dealing with queries and telephone support from HMRC will also be expected.
When you make the application, you will be expected to provide the following information to enable HMRC to process your claim.
The bank account details that you would like HMRC to use.
The contact details of somebody to speak to in case of query.
The Company tax reference number if you are a limited company or a personal tax reference number if you are an individual.
The name, employee number and national insurance number of each of your furloughed employees.
The total amount that is claimed for your employees.
It would also be likely that the PAYE reference and Accounts office references for your PAYE scheme will also be needed.
If you are using an agent to process your payroll it will be worthwhile to speak to them to ask what support they can offer and to check that they are registered as your agent so they can file the application for you.