What date is it taxable?

Well it may have been asked a 1,000 times but I am damned if I can find a search term that leads me to an answer. I have found an instance of the question being asked before but it was never answered.

Have you got one of the links please?

I suggest you re-read the second bullet point under the accrual model. "A grant that becomes receivable as compensation for expenses or losses already incurred, or for the purpose of giving immediate financial support to the entity with no future related costs, is recognised in income in the period in which it becomes receivable."

This grant would certainly fall into the category of 'immediate financial support with no future related costs'. (Obviously businesses in receipt of the grant will be incurring costs related to their being closed/less busy, however the amount of these costs has no bearing on the grant).

As already noted by another commenter, the recipient was entitled to the grant prior to 05/04/2020. I believe the prescribed entitlement date by govt is the earlier of payment date or 01/04/2020.

I did read that but I have taken the view (rightly or wrongly!) that most recipients will be using the grant towards future expenditure. For example, I have a client who, because he was in receipt of the grant, decided to use the money to top up his employees furlough pay. Maybe every case will need to be looked at individually.

I don't think any case needs to be looked at individually. Your particular client has chosen to use the grant in that way but they were under no requirement to do so.

FRS 102 24.5 C-G are the bullet points which were repeated in your previous link. The basis you appear to be going on is 24.5D "Grants relating to revenue shall be recognised in income on a systematic basis over the periods in which the entity recognises the related costs for which the grant is intended to compensate."

The grant is not intended to compensate for the cost of topping up employee's furlough pay, so to recognise it on that basis would appear incorrect.

I don't really see how this grant can be classified as anything other than 'for immediate financial support' and recognised when receivable under 24.5E.

Here is the ICAEW position (sorry about the formatting):

Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF), Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) and discretionary fund

The Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF), the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) and the discretionary fund represent cash payments from local authorities to eligible businesses. These are government grants for which there are no future performance-related conditions. They should be accounted for in accordance with Section 24 of FRS 102.

Paragraph 24.4 of FRS 102 permits an entity to recognise grants based on either the performance model or the accrual model. This is an accounting policy choice which must be applied on a class-by-class basis. Practically this choice doesn’t make a difference to the accounting treatment of these particular grants, however, the accounting policy used should be disclosed in the notes to the financial statements.
Performance model

Under the performance model, FRS 102 paragraph 24.5B(a) states a grant that does not impose specified future performance-related conditions on the recipient is recognised in income when the grant proceeds are received or receivable (this is likely to be when the scheme eligibility criteria were first published, or if there was uncertainty around eligibility, when confirmation of entitlement was received from the local authority). Practically, this will be shown within other income, with a corresponding debtor until the cash has been received from the local authority.

Accrual model

Under the accrual model, FRS 102 paragraph 24.5E states that a grant that becomes receivable for the purpose of giving immediate financial support to the entity with no future related costs shall be recognised as income in the period in which it becomes receivable (again, this is likely to be when the scheme eligibility criteria were first published, or if there was uncertainty around eligibility, when confirmation of entitlement was received from the local authority). Practically, this will be shown within other income, with a corresponding debtor until the cash is received from the local authority.

So in most cases that would be on 1 April.

Thank you for this too Paul!

This topic has been 'doing my head in' as I have official articles stating that it is declared on the date of entitlement (11th March or thereabouts) but they don't link to any official guidance and then when I look on AW, commentators are talking about spreading it over 3 months and all sorts of ideas which don't match the official commentators at all.

I have a corporate client with a 30 April 2020 year end receiving two grants; one in April and one in May so I will now accrue for the May one in the 2020 accounts.

Thank you!