SEISS Overpayments

Following the unprecedented payments made by the Government during the Covid-19 pandemic, HM Revenue & Customs has been provided with resources to recover incorrectly claimed SEISS payments.

To be eligible to claim the SEISS payments your business must have been adversely affected by Coronavirus.

This could be that your business had to close due to lockdown or you have had fewer customers due to social distancing or government restrictions. It could also be that you have had contracts cancelled and not replaced or you have been able to do less work due to disruptions to your supply trades so that you have not been able to carry out your work.

Alternatively, you may have been temporarily unable to work due to shielding or self-isolating or as a result of caring responsibilities.

You must have been adversely affected at the time each grant was claimed and we would recommend that records are kept showing the effect of the pandemic on your individual business such as dates that you have to close due to lockdown or self-isolate, dates you have not been able to work due to caring responsibilities and where you have lost contracts or your number of customers has declined due to Coronavirus.

If you consider that you have been overpaid SEISS grants then you must notify HMRC within 90 days of receiving the overpayment and this must be repaid by 31 January 2022 to avoid any penalties.

This could particularly apply to later SEISS grants 4 and 5 and careful consideration should be given to the continuing impact of the pandemic on your business when making a claim for these grants.

If HMRC determines that any SEISS grants have been overpaid and not notified to them within the 90-day time limit they will treat this as deliberate and concealed and will look to charge penalties up to 100% of the overpayments received. More information regarding SEISS overpayments and penalties can be found here.

If you believe that you may have been overpaid SEISS grants or would like to discuss the information required to support your claims for any SEISS payments received then please contact us to discuss this.