What’s the Big Deal?
COVID-19 has taken its toll, financially on a lot of businesses this year, forcing some businesses to close down or make redundancies because they can’t afford to keep the business afloat or pay employees. As a result of this devastating disease, the government have developed a way to help you keep your business financially stable without loosing business or staff.
The 6 Step Scheme
Make sure you follow the steps before and after you claim:
1. Check if you can claim – Find out if you’re eligible and how much you can claim.
2. Check which employees you can claim for – Be sure your employees are eligible for the claim.
3. What to do before calculating a claim – Follow the steps before working out a claim.
4. Calculate how much you can claim – How much do you have to pay your furloughed employees.
5. Claim for your employees wages – Make your claim for your employees.
6. Report a payment in PAYE RTI – Report your employees wages to HMRC after you’ve claimed.
“If your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus, you can furlough employees an apply for a grant to cover a portion of their usual monthly wage costs…”
– HMRC Gov.uk
Important information
• The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended until 30 September 2021.
Find out more about how the scheme is changing.
• Claims for furlough days in March 2021 must be made by 14 April 2021.
• You can no longer submit claims for claim periods ending on or before 31 October 2020.
How to claim?
You’ll need the Government Gateway user ID and password you got when you registered for PAYE online.
You can claim before, during or after you process your payroll as long as your claim is submitted by the relevant claim deadline. You cannot submit your claim more than 14 days before your claim period end date.
When making your claim, you:
• Do not have to wait until the end date of the claim period for a previous claim before making your next claim.
• Can make your claim more than 14 days in advance of the pay date (for example, if you pay your employee in arrears).
What you need to claim:
• To be registered for PAYE online
• Your UK, Channel Island or Isle of Man bank account number and sort code (only provide bank account details where a BACS payment can be accepted)
• The billing address on your bank account (this is the address on your bank statements)
• Your employer PAYE scheme reference number
• The number of employees being furloughed
• Each employee’s National Insurance number (you will need to search for their number using basic PAYE Tools if you do not have it, or contact HMRC if your employee has a temporary number or genuinely has never had one)
• Each employee’s payroll or employee number (optional)
• The start date and end date of the claim
• The full amounts of employee wages you’re claiming for
• Your phone number
• Contact name
The earliest you can make a claim for May 2021 is 19 April 2021.
For more information on this scheme head to: Gov.uk
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