HMRC have released their portal for reclaiming employee’s pay under the CJRS as expected on 20 April 2020.
Practical experience so far today suggests that the portal is not yet fully functional.
A few Key messages arising are:
- You must be registered for PAYE online in order to make the claim. If you have not you should register via your Government Gateway here . We can only submit your claim for you if we are your registered PAYE agent. We can put this in place but it will most likely take a week or so.
- Once you start your claim in the portal you must complete it and cannot save partway through. Therefore, it is essential to have gathered all of the information in advance which includes your own calculation of the amount you are claiming – the portal does not do this for you
- As stated, you must calculate the claim yourself, but HMRC changed their guidance on the evening of Friday 17th April – see here for the latest calculation guidance
- HMRC have a calculator on their website which may be useful to check your workings. Unfortunately, it can only deal with relatively simple situations.
- You may use our Free Furlough Claim Calculator to help you calculate your claim. It should be able to deal with more situations than HMRC’s, but may not give the correct answer if the position is complicated.
Important details to assist in making your claim:
Claims will need to be made by the employer. You’ll need to have access to PAYE Online through the Government Gateway. If you don’t currently have a Gateway login, that should be your first priority – please follow this
LINK
HMRC have announced authentication codes will be issued via email rather than being posted.
If you’re a client of FT Pay we’ll already have authority to act on PAYE matters on your behalf and will be able to submit the claim for you if you wish. This will not happen automatically so please let us know if you would like us to calculate and submit it on your behalf.
WHAT INFORMATION YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE YOUR CLAIM
You’ll need:
- your employer PAYE reference number
- the number of employees being furloughed
- your self-assessment UTR (Unique Tax Reference) , Company UTR or Company Registration Number
- the claim period (start and end date)
- amount claimed
- bank account number and sort code
- contact name & phone number
You’ll need to calculate the amount you are claiming. HMRC will retain the right to retrospectively audit all aspects of your claim. It is important you keep all records and a copy of all letters sent to employees.
For each employee, you’ll need to know:
- Name
- NI number
- Payroll/works number
- Salary
- Employer’s NI
- Employer’s pension contributions
WHAT NEXT
We’ll keep you updated as and when HMRC issue further guidance.
Further details of how the system works are available
HERE