Pay back money you were entitled
An overclaimed Eat Out to Help Out payment includes any amount of a payment which you were not entitled to receive from HMRC.
Need help
If you have any health or personal circumstances that may make it difficult for you to deal with us, please tell the officer who has contacted you. Please let me know. Alternatively, you can also ask someone else to deal with us on your behalf, for example, a professional adviser, friend or relative.
Paying back amounts you’ve overclaimed
Mistakes do happen, particularly given recent circumstances. HMRC has made it as easy as possible to pay back any amounts of Eat Out to Help Out payments you’ve claimed that you were not entitled to.
If you received too much because you made an error in a claim, you must pay this back to immediately to HMRC
Recovering overclaimed amounts
Under the new legislation, HMRC can recover amounts of Eat Out to Help Out payments you’ve overclaimed. HMRC are looking at a huge number of incorrect claims and will take action immediately. By paying back any amounts now you were not entitled, you can avoid any tax liability, penalties and interest for overclaimed Eat Out to Help Out payments.
HMRC will prosecute deliberate non-compliance and criminal attacks.
Assessing the Income Tax charge
To recover overclaimed payments, HMRC will raise an Income Tax assessment. They will issue an assessment for the amount that you were not entitled to and have not already repaid. If you have received an assessment, contact me immediately.
The assessment includes any amounts you’ve overclaimed that you were not entitled to under the Eat Out to Help Out rules.
You must pay any amount assessed amount within 30 days of the date of the assessment or appeal the assessment, if you disagree.
For any overclaimed amounts:
By tax return HMRC mean your appropriate Corporation Tax return or your Income Tax Self Assessment return for the tax year 2020-21.
If you know you’ve overclaimed Eat Out to Help Out amounts, do not wait until you send in your tax return because you may be liable to a penalty.
Penalty for not telling us about the Income Tax charge
HMRC will charge you a penalty if you did not tell us within the notification period that you were liable to an Income Tax charge due to an overclaimed Eat Out to Help Out payment.
The notification period ended 90 days after you received the Eat Out to Help Out payment you’re not entitled to.
When deciding the amount of any penalty, HMRC will take account of whether you knew you were not entitled to the Eat Out to Help Out payment when you received it.
If you knew you were not entitled to your payment when you received it and did not tell HMRC in the notification period, the law treats your failure as deliberate and concealed.
This means HMRC can charge a penalty of up to 100% on the amount of the Eat Out to Help Out payment that you were not entitled to receive or keep. HMRC will look at basket of evidence when considering the amount of any penalty.
Appeals
If HMRC:
HMRC will write and let you know.
HMRC will give you the reasons for our decision and tell you the amount of tax or penalty due.
If you do not agree with the decision or the amount due, you can appeal by instructing an expert. You must do this within 30 days from the date of HMRC's letter.
If you’re a partnership
If a partnership receives an overclaimed Eat Out to Help Out payment which it does not repay, to collect the amount due as Income Tax HMRC may assess:
The partners will be jointly and severally liable for the amount assessed.
If the partnership does not repay the amount and HMRC has not issued an assessment, one of the partners must include the Income Tax charge on their Self Assessment tax return for 2020 to 2021. The other partners will not need to self-assess the amount.
HMRC will assess the relevant partner for the penalty HMRC charge, but all partners are jointly and severally liable for any penalty assessed.
If a company becomes insolvent
If a company is insolvent and HMRC cannot recover the tax it owes, company officers will be held personally liable to pay the tax charged on their companies’ overclaimed Eat Out to Help Out payments.