HMRC have published their Employer Bulletin for June 2021. We summarise the key content for you, with links to our detailed guidance on the topics covered.

COVID-19

Claim working from home tax relief

  • Your employees may incur additional household costs if they have to work at home on a regular basis, either for all or part of the week.
    • This includes having been told to work from home because of Coronavirus.
  • Additional costs include things like heating, metered water bills or business calls, that they can demonstrate have been incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily as a direct result of working from home.
    • They do not include costs that would stay the same whether they are working at home or in an office.
  • If employees are not reimbursed for these costs, they may be eligible to claim tax relief on them.
  • Claims can be made using HMRC's online service, which is now open for claims that relate to periods up to 5 April 2022.
    • Employees who have to complete a Self Assessment tax return will need to claim working from home expenses via the employment income pages of their tax return instead of the digital service.
  • There is detailed guidance to help them claim and to check their eligibility

See COVID-19: Employees working from home and Working from home (employer/ee)

Continued support for businesses: Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme

  • Employers with fewer than 250 employees who have paid Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to employees for Coronavirus-related sickness absence, could be eligible for support under the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme.
    • Tax agents can make claims on behalf of employers.
    • The repayment will cover up to two weeks of the applicable rate of SSP.
  • Find out more information on eligibility and check if you can claim back statutory sick pay.

See COVID-19: Government support tracker

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

  • The deadline for CJRS claims for periods in May 2021 is Monday 14 June 2021.
  • You can claim before, during or after you process your payroll.
    • It’s best to make a claim once you’re sure of the exact number of hours your employees will work so you don’t have to amend your claim later.

How much you can claim

  • The UK government will continue to pay 80% of employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,500 per month, up to the end of June 2021.
  • For periods in July 2021, CJRS grants will cover 70% of employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,187.50.
  • In August and September 2021, this will reduce to 60% of employees’ usual wages up to a cap of £1,875.
  • You need to continue to pay your furloughed employees at least 80% of their usual wages for the hours they do not work during this time, up to a cap of £2,500 per month.
    • This means, for periods between July and September 2021, you will need to fund the difference between this and the CJRS grants yourself.
  • You must also pay the associated employee tax and National Insurance contributions to HMRC.
    • If this is not done, the whole CJRS grant is repayable. 
  • There is detailed guidance to help you claim through the CJRS and key deadlines you need to be aware of.

Further support

  • You can sign up to receive regular email updates from HMRC, to keep up-to-date with the latest information on their Coronavirus schemes. 
  • Thousands of people have also joined HMRC's live webinars which offer information on the CJRS, other government support, and how they apply to you.

See COVID-19: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) from 1 November 2020

VAT Deferral New Payment Scheme

  • If you deferred VAT payments due between 20 March and 30 June 2020 and still have payments to make, you can use the online VAT Deferral New Payment Scheme to pay in smaller instalments.
    • You can join the scheme online, without the need to call HMRC.
  • The scheme closes on 21 June 2021: if you want to join the scheme online, you must do so before this date.
  • You may be charged a 5% penalty and/or interest if you do not either pay in full, sign up to the scheme online before the scheme closes or get in touch with HMRC to make an arrangement to pay by 30 June 2021.
  • Find out more about the VAT Deferral New Payment Scheme, including the things you need to do before joining.
  • The new scheme lets you pay your deferred VAT in equal monthly instalments, interest-free.
    • Join by 21 June 2021 to pay in up to eight instalments.
  • If you have a Time to Pay arrangement already in place for your deferred VAT, you cannot use the online scheme.
    • If you need to amend your Time to Pay arrangement, please phone HMRC to do this.

See COVID-19: VAT deferred payments

Taxable benefit charge: returning office equipment

Employer-provided equipment

  • If you have supplied your employees with office equipment to allow them to work from home, without a transfer of ownership, there is no tax charge when they return the equipment back to you.
  • If you transfer the ownership of the equipment to the employee at any stage of their employment, a benefit charge generally arises on the market value of the equipment at the time of the transfer less any amount made good by the employee.
  • There is an alternative method for calculating the chargeable benefit when equipment is transferred, more information on this method can be found in Employment Income Manual EIM21650.

Employer reimbursed equipment

  • If your employee has agreed to purchase their own home office equipment for use whilst working at home as a result of Coronavirus and you reimburse the exact expense unless you have specified to your employee that they must transfer ownership to you, the ownership of the equipment rests with your employee.
    • There is no benefit charge on the reimbursement.
    • There is also no benefit charge if you allow your employee to keep the equipment as it is something that they already own.
  • Further information and to check which expenses are taxable if your employee works from home due to Coronavirus is available.

See COVID-19: Employees working from home and Assets made available without transfer

Coronavirus: how HMRC will continue to support customers and the economy

  • HMRC have updated the HMRC issue briefing COVID-19: how HMRC will continue to support customers and the economy.
  • This document sets out the support schemes and policy changes that HMRC has implemented.
    • It also includes HMRC's principles for the next steps on tax collection, benefits payments, compliance checks and debt activity.
  • HMRC recognise the continuing impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.
    • HMRC will continue to collect the tax due in a way that recognises the very real needs and challenges that businesses and individuals face.
  • The updated issue briefing now includes government announcements made since November.


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