I have a payroll client who has decided to furlough three employees. Clearly they have to be furloughed by 10 June but do HMRC need to be notified by that date or when the June payroll is run?
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You don't notify HMRC that employees have been furloughed - you make claim for the subsidy.
I'm somewhat surprised that any business is only now furloughing employees for the first time. Whilst your client may be entirely above board with their plans, this does smell a bit off to me.
I think lots of businesses will suddenly furlough people from 10 June, to give them options for flexible furloughing later on. This furlough won't be because the employees would otherwise be made redundant due to adverse effect of coronavirus on the business (the purpose of the scheme) but because "we can manage without them for 3 weeks, just about". I think govt has been a bit silly not to foresee this reaction. From my point of view, when clients are furloughing new people I am simply asking them to confirm that the reason for furlough is in line with the purpose of the scheme.
No need to notify HMRC. We have a number of clients that furloughed staff on 1 April but HMRC still haven't been 'told'. Because of our exorbitant fees for processing furlough claims, those clients have asked that we wait until after 30 June and submit a single claim for the 3 months. Exactly what we hoped would happen by setting fees at that level :)
Hi Wilson Philips. With reference to your point about waiting until after 30 June to claim, HMRC have said that the scheme will be closed to new entrants from 1 July. Some commentators have interpreted this to mean that the employer must therefore have submitted their first claim by 30 June and they can then submit a further claim in July covering the period to 30 June. It's unclear to me whether the deadline for a first claim is 31 July or 30 June, but at the moment we are playing it safe and treating it as the earlier date. Hopefully more will be revealed on Friday.
That does't make sense. If a claim for the period to 30 June is submitted by 31 July then, by definition, all employees that are the subject of the claim must have been furloughed prior to the 'closing date'.
"The scheme will close to new entrants from 30 June. From this point onwards, employers will only be able to furlough employees that they have furloughed for a full 3 week period prior to 30 June.
This means that the final date by which an employer needs to agree with their employee and ensure they place them on furlough is 10 June. Employers will have until 31 July to make any claims in respect of the period to 30 June."
Nothing about having had to have made claim for an employee prior to 30 June.
Agreed that the guidance is unclear (or possibly even misleading) on the point. I have just posed the question to HMRC via the online CJRS chat and they advised that the first claim needs to have been submitted by 30 June.