New Tax Year – Same Old CJRS Guidance Changes
I did a consolidation of the CJRS guidance changes at the end of March and a new tax year has not stopped them coming. Time for another roundup. As I said, keeping on top of every change guidance change is exhausting for payroll and reward professionals and, save for fundamental changes, we don’t want to be constantly bombarded with news.
So, to ensure we know where we are here is my summary of the latest changes to the CJRS guidance:
Start, as always, at the ‘collection’ page on Gov.UK and I detail below the pieces that have changed.
This was the first piece of guidance, published on 26 March 2020. The guidance changed on 25 March 2021 for the 39th time and on 01 April for the 40th time.
This update section said:
The following paragraph was added to the guidance from HMRC:
A RDEC Claim is where a percentage of the company's research and development costs are claimed as a credit against Corporation Tax. Costs includes things like salaries and wages for staff working on the R&D project. It may be interesting to see the following guidance:
So, a furloughed employee would not count as being involved in research and development and, as such, cannot be part of a company’s RDEC claim.
This was, simply, to advise that Claims for furlough days in March 2021 must be made by 14 April 2021.
Published for the first time on 14 May 2020, the guidance was updated on 25 March 2021 (the 28th update), 01 April 2021 (the 29th) and 08 April 2021 (the 30th):
This is exactly the same as above about a furloughed employee not being classed as performing R&D work and, therefore, not eligible to be included in a RDEC claim.
This is the same as above about March claims being made by 14 April 2021.
The following paragraph has been added to the section ‘Employee transfers under TUPE and on a change in ownership’:
This is not part of the collection but this guidance for individuals was published on 26 March 2020 and the 25 March 2021 is the 33rd (still with 3 updates to the Welsh speakers / readers). The update says:
This is all to do with clarifying what period the employee must have been in employment for their employer to be eligible to make a reclaim under the scheme (and the employer made an FPS submission in between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020).
Previously, the guidance indicated that there was eligibility ‘for periods ending on or before 30 April 2021’. Now the guidance has been tightened to say that eligibility only exists ‘for periods from 01 November 2020 to 30 April 2021’.
This guidance was published for the first time on 12 June 2020 was updated on 25 March 2021 (the 22nd update), 01 April (the 23rd) and 08 April 2021 (the 24th), excluding the 2 translations into Welsh:
The lookback calendar of dates has been expanded to reflect the Schemes’ extension to the end of September 2021.
This is the same as above about March claims being made by 14 April 2021.
There is a new section ‘Find out your employee’s reference date’. This will either be:
- 19 March 2020 or
- 30 October 2020
The guidance is much clearer on the reference salary to be applied depending on the reference date criteria.
Do see this section, as there is another reference date of 02 March 2021 if neither of the above apply!
This guidance was first published on 12 June 2020 and was updated on 25 March 2021 (the 26th update), 01 April 2021 (the 27th) and 08 April 2021 (the 28th). This excludes the 5 Welsh translations):
There has been a general tidy up of the dates for when employers can make a claim. This reflects the Scheme’s extension to the end of September 2021. For example, the lookback calendar of dates has been expanded.
This is the same as above about March claims being made by 14 April 2021.
The daily maximum wage amount tables have been updated, again reflecting the Scheme’s extension to the end of September 2021.
This is the one with two sets of examples:
- Examples of how to calculate your employees' wages
- Full example of how to calculate the amount you should claim for an employee who is flexibly furloughed
All of the examples have been updated to reflect the better guidance regarding reference dates, i.e.,:
- 19 March 2020 or
- 30 October 2020
This is welcome.
Note that if neither of the above reference dates apply, the employee is not eligible for periods starting before 01 May 2021. Yet, if an FPS was submitted with earnings between 31 October 2020 and 02 March 2021, the reference date is 02 March 2021!
This guidance was published on 20 April 2020 and updates on 25 March (the 36th) and 01 April 2021 (the 37th) are as follows:
Guidance was been updated to explain that earliest employers can make a claim for May 2021 is 19 April 2021.
This is the same as above about March claims being made by 14 April 2021.
This guidance was published on 23 April 2020 and an update on 25 March 2021 was the 18th time it had changed – with an update on 01 April 2021 being the 19th (excluding the 5 Welsh translations).
This explains that, from 01 November 2020 to 30 April 2021, CJRS eligibility is extended to employees who were employed on 30 October 2020 (providing an FPS submission was made between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020).
This is the same as above about March claims being made by 14 April 2021.
Note that the following piece of guidance has not changed since 03 March 2021:
- Pay Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grants back (when the guidance confirmed that the Scheme is being extended until 30 September 2021)
Note that the following piece of guidance has not changed since 11 February 2021:
- ‘Get help with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ (the new guidance with links to the above online guidance, HMRC’s online chat facility and the note that HMRC are receiving a high number of calls and to only contact them on 0800 024 1222 if ‘necessary’)
