COVID-19 Update – 3 February – Guidance for furloughed directors on annual payrolls

HMRC have updated their guidance to confirm any directors who are paid annually and claiming under the third version of the CJRS must align salary payments with claims.

At the end of January, HMRC updated its guidance on calculating employees’ wages, which related to an annually paid director last paid on 30 March 2020. The new guidance confirms that prior to 1 November 2020 no  CJRS grant could have been claimed because the director did not receive a salary in the tax year 2019-2020 reported through RTI by 19 March 2020. However, they are now eligible for the third version of the CJRS.

The guidance states: “The director is not due to be paid until 30 March 2021, but employers can only claim CJRS in advance if the payroll run is imminent. If W Ltd claims CJRS for November 2020 in respect of this director, they will need to pay them (and operate PAYE) earlier than usual.”

In effect, the CJRS claim can only be made if the salary payment date was brought forward to November.

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