Sandra Douglas • May 05, 2020
Things have been busy here with the claims for the Job Retention Scheme. These have all gone smoothly with the funds being transferred to the businesses within the 6 days HMRC stated.
Now we move to an update on the latest with the SESS Grant.
The eligibility checker went live yesterday on the HMRC website. You can find the checker here:
https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/self-employment-support/enter-unique-taxpayer-reference
You will need your UTR and NI numbers to hand.
Please be aware that on use of this checker we have received some false responses – both negative and positive. This is still a beta tool and therefore they need to iron out some of the issues. One issue we can pinpoint are with those who submitted their returns late.
HMRC will be writing to everybody who is eligible for the scheme and you will be asked to make the claim via your own Government Gateway login. We have heard that the claim portal will be going live on the 13th but this is not yet set in stone.
If you do not have a government gateway login, then you will need to set one up. HMRC are not allowing agents to make the claims on behalf of their clients, the individual will need to do this themselves. You can do it from the link below, but they will need to confirm your identity therefore you will need a bit more information to hand than just the numbers referred to above. This could be your driving licence or your passport among other things.
https://www.access.service.gov.uk/registration/email
If the business is a partnership then you will need to create a government gateway account for each partner, and each partner will then claim for their own share of the profits under the scheme.
Once your letter from HMRC arrives, it will ask you to login to your account to confirm a few details, and ask whether you have been impacted by Covid19, you will then get immediate confirmation of whether your claim has been successful. Once you have received a confirmation, the funds will be received into your bank account in 6 working days.
This will be a prime time for phishing emails. HMRC will never email you asking you to enter bank details, nor will they ask you to click links. Any email you receive from them will be asking you to sign into your account. Please be wary of anything you get via email or text, and if in doubt, please check with your accountant or bookkeeper before falling foul of these unscrupulous individuals.
Regards other help available to you, we have has some clients applying for the Bounce Back Loan Scheme. Their experiences have been very positive with the whole application process being very easy. Please do remember however that this is a loan and will need to be paid back. The government guarantee of this is so that the banks are more willing to lend without asking for large interest rates or guarantees on property or other assets.
If you require any help or further information on any of these schemes, please do feel free to contact us, we will be happy to help.
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