HMRC refusal of Second grant for self employed

LadyPrecious

I appealed to HMRC on refusal of my 2nd Self employed help grant, they said my tax return was not in on time, I realised I had submitted it 20 minutes late, and on receipt of the £100 fine I paid it but then appealed it early March, they did not inform me until last week in February that I had 14 days to pay the fine, I paid and appealed explaining why my tax return was 20 minutes late due to a PC crash. I received my 1st government grant but as a single mum and a hairdresser I could not work government ruling due to COVID 19, I applied for UC but didn't get the first payment for 5 weeks, as a single mum that pays all the bills we had to start living on the 1st government grant. My salon closed down due to nasty landlord that would not give me a rent holiday. My clients started dropping off my list, I had so many bills to pay out, due to closure of my salon and home bills and rent arrears. I tried to apply for the 2nd Self employed grant, which as explained above I was not entitled to be cause my tax return was submitted late. HMRC got 2 appeals from me dated early March 20 and another May 20 after finally receiving a letter in the post on the 5th May, stating that I had not clicked page 8 in my tax return! First time even after dated appeal stating to HMRC clearly about my 20 minute delay of submission of tax return due to pc crash.... they finally let me know on May 5th that I hadn't clicked page 8 !! Why had it taken HMRC this long to inform me there was a problem with page 8 ????? So therefore I missed the date of 28th April 20 extension date on tax return... !!! My 3rd appeal gets refused again on same grounds.. late submission of tax return, I have all these dates logged of appeals etc... I think this is wrong this is the fault of HMRC but they won't admit this or acknowledge any of my appeals except keep repeating, that I submitted my tax return late therefore I'm not entitled to any grant !! I'm in disgust... I've lost clients by handfuls sue to the fact that my salon closed down and they do not want my offer of mobile home hairdressing! It's not my fault Covid 19 struck! And here I am lost clients lost half my business and can't get help from the government... we have had daily costs bills etc that's practically eaten away at the first grant, that I have no money to go into my business with and I'm living on £103 per week !!! Where's the justice in this?? 

justwhat

???? you can't apply for the second grant yet?

SidneySmutt

I’m intrigued about page 8!

[Deleted User]

If you did not submit your 18/19 tax return you would not be entitled to either the first or second grant under SEISS as mentioned above as well as the fact that no one can claim the second grant yet as applications do not open until 14/07.

Also you claim your tax return was late due to a "pc crash", did your PC crash from the start of April 19 to thr end of January 20? You have nine months to file a tax return, not five minutes before midnight on 31st January. 

Grumpy_chap

You cannot claim second SEISS grant yet, nor do you know if you will qualify yet.  As a hair salon, if you re-start 4th July, you may be really busy as the customer return with pent-up demand.

Did you receive the premises related grants?

calcotti

MadMattUK said:

If you did not submit your 18/19 tax return you would not be entitled to either the first or second grant under SEISS as mentioned above as well as the fact that no one can claim the second grant yet as applications do not open until 14/07.

Applications are expected to open in August. 14/07 is the start of the qualifying period. 

Jeremy535897

OP's post may mean that the first grant was the £10,000 small business grant, and the second grant was the first SEISS. It would appear that the issue is one of late filing, but what appears to have happened is that the return was completed on 31 January at around midnight, but was not actually sent to HMRC until 1 February due to a PC crash. In addition, it appears that the declaration was not made, so technically the return was not actually filed until after 23 (not 28) April 2020.

If those are the facts, the answer is that if the return was not properly filed until after 23 April 2020, no SEISS grant is due. It seems that HMRC have been remiss in not notifying OP that the filing was deficient until 8 May, but it is clear they have not accepted this as an adequate reason for any sort of leeway. Short of writing to an MP, there is not much more that can be done.