SEISS - Average earnings & grant calculation - Appeal Success?

mobilejo

acooley said:

I was late submitting my 2018/19 tax return. Crazy. How are they related? 

Come on, do you really need to ask how not filing your tax return almost 13 months after the tax year ended is related to you not getting the grant?

life_love_anna

life_love_anna said:

I appealed my SEISS grant when I applied on 13/05 - I was told that I'd hear back by the end of the month regarding the outcome but as yet I've not heard anything. I appealed on the basis that I was on maternity leave during 16/17, therefore, bringing my earnings down.

My appeal was denied, stating that the 2018/19 tax year was the cut off date - even though you had to have submitted a tax return for 2019/20 to apply. Oh well, it was worth a try

Hermann

life_love_anna said:

life_love_anna said:

I appealed my SEISS grant when I applied on 13/05 - I was told that I'd hear back by the end of the month regarding the outcome but as yet I've not heard anything. I appealed on the basis that I was on maternity leave during 16/17, therefore, bringing my earnings down.

My appeal was denied, stating that the 2018/19 tax year was the cut off date - even though you had to have submitted a tax return for 2019/20 to apply. Oh well, it was worth a try

There is no requirement for a 19/20 tax return to have been submitted, deadline for them is Jan 2021, eligibility is based on tax returns between 2016/17 and 2018/19.

antonic

Hermann said:

life_love_anna said:

life_love_anna said:

I appealed my SEISS grant when I applied on 13/05 - I was told that I'd hear back by the end of the month regarding the outcome but as yet I've not heard anything. I appealed on the basis that I was on maternity leave during 16/17, therefore, bringing my earnings down.

My appeal was denied, stating that the 2018/19 tax year was the cut off date - even though you had to have submitted a tax return for 2019/20 to apply. Oh well, it was worth a try

There is no requirement for a 19/20 tax return to have been submitted, deadline for them is Jan 2021, eligibility is based on tax returns between 2016/17 and 2018/19.

Correct - to be eligible you HAD to have filed your 18/19 return by 23/04/20 AND be trading in 20/21.

Kattermole

No one should be getting their hopes up about an appeal unless there has been a mistake at HMRC’s end to do with the data they hold. They aren’t going to award you more money based on your personal circumstances, whether that be because you had a half year or were on maternity leave, because that would then require them to do so for everyone and institute a scheme-wide change of policy. Whether rightly or wrongly, those circumstances have already been considered as part of the scheme being set up.

By all means appeal if you think the information they hold is incorrect, but if you’re appealing because you think the interpretation of the rules doesn’t apply to you specifically then it’s pointless. It isn’t a scheme tailored to individual circumstances and doing so would open the floodgates and cause them a huge amount more work. By all means appeal as at least it can be evidence of the number of people who have fallen foul of the criteria through no fault of their own, but you won’t get any money unless they’ve made a mistake on their end with figures. 

Jeremy535897

Unfortunately all the "no hope" protest appeals do is register a protest, and that will achieve nothing other than slowing down the process for the very few appeals that might actually have merit.

tightasafish

I received a reply to my appeal today. Quote: “When working out your one month average, we divide the average trading profits by twelve. We do this even if you were not working as self employed for all of those twelve months “.
However unjust we feel this is, apparently this is the law and no amount of appealing to HMRC will change it. I guess if there were sufficient groundswell the government may be forced to take a second look at it but I’m not sure there are sufficient people out there to make a loud enough noise. The formula they have used is simple and uncomplicated in order to get the money out quickly. I doubt that they will now entertain individual injustices. 

tommyt-saver

I'm just surprised that they didn't use the '50% of income in 2018/2019 to be eligible' rule across all tax years, and to exclude any years where it fell lower when calculating the average. It would have been one extra line of code, but would have represented a truer/fair average SE income and supported much more people in a time of need. 

superbigal

All though I feel sorry for loads of cases.  My Wife for instance SE and PAYE.  Her SE about 48% of income so no help on the 50% rule.
The cases I cannot support are those who apparently survived on "Zero" income in one of the years. 
Those dam "expenses" coming back to haunt you now.
 Aye pull the other one !!!

Or the "cash only" self employed.  Save the Vat Guv

Jeremy535897

tommyt-saver said:

I'm just surprised that they didn't use the '50% of income in 2018/2019 to be eligible' rule across all tax years, and to exclude any years where it fell lower when calculating the average. It would have been one extra line of code, but would have represented a truer/fair average SE income and supported much more people in a time of need. 

We can have all sorts of opinions. I don't see the logic of the £50,000 cap, the 50% test, or the treatment of part years as full years. The first two vastly increased complexity for no good reason, and the third could easily have been dealt with by just averaging best 2 out of 3, which would remove distortions caused by part years and uneven capital investment. But it doesn't matter what we think. We might not think paying 20% tax is fair, but there's not much point in appealing against its imposition!