Cessation of trade

SEISS and Cessation

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I have a client who claimed and was entitled to claim the first 3 SEISS grants and then made the decision after that to wind things down as he was in his late 60's.  In mid 2021 he has also become ill and undergoing hospital treatment. Due to the slightly "ad hoc" nature of his work it is not possible to give a definitive cessation date in as much as he may have done a job if it came his way for a while but none did. I am doing the 2020/21 tax return. The client has expressed a desire to avoid the cost of future tax returns and suggested a 5/4/2021 cessation date. We could indeed so this but I am worried it may lead to HMRC asking for proof that the cessation was not earlier as his actual non grant income in 20/21 was very low. Now if they did I feel confident we could prove the claims for grants 1-3 ( the only ones he claimed) were valid but given his current health I could do without risking the stress to him of answering the questions.

We also have a few other more elderly clients in similar situations who have decided they are now too old to build the business up again or have just decided that they have been at home now for over a year and have "slipped" into retirement so any thoughts would be very interesting to read. Has anyone seen any questions on 20/21 cessations?

Replies (13)

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By SXGuy
05th Nov 2021 18:38

I think you're over analysing it. Reality is its doubtful anyone will care when he ceased trading. The point is he reasonably believed he would continue to trade at the time of each claim. And that his income was affected as a result of covid.

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Replying to SXGuy:
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By Paul Crowley
05th Nov 2021 19:11

+1
HMRC just would not have the time

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Replying to SXGuy:
RLI
By lionofludesch
05th Nov 2021 19:21

SXGuy wrote:

I think you're over analysing it. Reality is its doubtful anyone will care when he ceased trading. The point is he reasonably believed he would continue to trade at the time of each claim. And that his income was affected as a result of covid.

Agree with my learned colleagues.

If he was entitled at the time of the claim, that's all he needs to consider.

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Replying to SXGuy:
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By jonharris999
05th Nov 2021 20:30

+1

Move along, nothing to see here. :)

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Replying to jonharris999:
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By Diana Miller
06th Nov 2021 08:04

Thanks for that. Nice to see sole practitioners that just feel like they need to "bounce " something off others in the profession get such a warm and welcoming response. I may have been over cautious over this but at least other people managed to be polite.

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Replying to Diana Miller:
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By Tax Dragon
06th Nov 2021 08:16

In Jon's defence, I don't think his reply was impolite. Unprofessional, certainly. Inappropriate, absolutely. But Jon is actually (in my experience) one of the most polite members of this forum. (You won't need to look at very many other threads if you want to verify that for yourself.)

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
RLI
By lionofludesch
06th Nov 2021 08:35

Tax Dragon wrote:

In Jon's defence, I don't think his reply was impolite. Unprofessional, certainly. Inappropriate, absolutely. But Jon is actually (in my experience) one of the most polite members of this forum. (You won't need to look at very many other threads if you want to verify that for yourself.)

He was the only one with a smiley face.

Some folk need to ask themselves whether they aren't looking to be insulted.

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Replying to Diana Miller:
Stepurhan
By stepurhan
06th Nov 2021 08:28

I note you have not thanked all those other people for being polite and reassuring you.

I saw Jon's comment as a light-hearted "nothing to worry about" comment. He even put a smily face on the end to indicate that. If anything, his "+1" should have been further reassurance that you had nothing to worry about, as it was another person agreeing your client was fine.

Rather than taking offence, you could make an effort to make this a welcoming place yourself. Instead, you chose to accuse someone making a comment with a smily face in it of being hostile. Maybe next time be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

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Replying to stepurhan:
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By zebaa
06th Nov 2021 11:05

I agree very much with Stepurhan. We too often see a OP asking for advice only for that advice then to be rejected with scornful comment.

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Replying to zebaa:
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By Tax Dragon
06th Nov 2021 12:58

And in OP's defence, she has already explained it was a (nunderstandable) misunderstanding, not a (scornful or otherwise) rejection.

Short form written word is often misunderstood. Again, you don't need to read many threads to see evidence of that.

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Replying to jonharris999:
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By jonharris999
06th Nov 2021 08:41

It was a clumsy attempt to reassure you @Diana, nothing more.

Congrats to us all on our healing team dynamics! If only MPs could learn from us...

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Replying to jonharris999:
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By Diana Miller
06th Nov 2021 10:58

Thanks. As usual with me it shows I am best staying away from technology. I had absolutely no idea the characters at the end of the comment were a "smiley face" so completely misunderstood the tone of the reply. My daughter would be rolling her eyes. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

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Replying to Diana Miller:
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By Catherine Newman
06th Nov 2021 12:16

I'm not up to speed with emojis unless they are yellow or depict things eg cakes, wine, balloons.

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