SEISS repayment/penalty

callowman1980

Has anyone had any experience of declaring an SEISS overpayment or ineligibility? I believe i was entitled (and had a letter saying so). But after making a claim I've had an email saying i have to declare it and pay it back or pay a penalty. I was worried it was scam at first as there is not much information on line about it. Im particularly interested in anyones experience with this. 

Jeremy535897

callowman1980 said:

Has anyone had any experience of declaring an SEISS overpayment or ineligibility? I believe i was entitled (and had a letter saying so). But after making a claim I've had an email saying i have to declare it and pay it back or pay a penalty. I was worried it was scam at first as there is not much information on line about it. Im particularly interested in anyones experience with this. 

As I said elsewhere, tomorrow may be the deadline for repaying incorrectly claimed SEISS 1 grants. See:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tell-hmrc-and-pay-the-self-employment-income-support-scheme-grant-back

If HMRC miscalculated the grant, it does not have to be repaid. See:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/08/1-000s-of-self-employed-coronavirus-grants-miscalculated-by-hmrc/

To check whether your email has come from HMRC, here is a recently updated guide from HMRC:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/genuine-hmrc-contact-and-recognising-phishing-emails/genuine-hmrc-contact-and-recognising-phishing-emails
It includes the following:

"1.16 Emails and letters about the Coronavirus Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme was announced by the Chancellor as a coronavirus measure. This is a grant for the self-employed who are impacted by coronavirus based on a set of eligibility criteria.

From May 2020 HMRC will invite customers to check their eligibility by:

• SMS text message
• email
• letter

Customers will then receive a second contact from HMRC by SMS text message, email or letter confirming when the Scheme is open and inviting you to make a claim, or check when you’ll be able to do so.

Some customers will also receive an email that will do one of the following:

• confirm their grant payment is being processed
• advise them to check their bank details before their grant can be processed
• ask them to confirm if they should not have received a grant as they stopped trading

The message you get will direct you to the GOV.UK website and will not include any hyperlinks."

I have no direct experience, but I would have expected the communication to be in the form of a letter, not an email. How does it say the grant should be repaid, and why do you think it should not have been claimed?

callowman1980

The email i recieved says November 30th

callowman1980

Im worried because for the first time in over 10 years I went on the books with a company (starting Dec 2018) that i previously did all my work as a contractor. The company did me a favor as I was expecting the birth of my first child and being on the books with them gave me private health care. However I kept my SA account open as I still can do consultancy work on a freelance basis. However I found i was turning down freelance work due to being busy so i did not file a tax return for 19/20 tax year. I was then made redundant very early in the lockdown (April) and have gone back to being self employed full time. 

Jeremy535897

If you did not trade in 2019/20 (and being an employee is not trading), then you did not meet one of the criteria for eligibility, and will have to pay the grant back. If you open the first link in my previous post, it includes:

"When you must tell HMRC

This depends on the date you received your grant, so if you received the grant:

• before 22 July 2020 you must tell us on or before 20 October 2020
• on or after 22 July 2020 you must tell us within 90 days of receiving the grant

If you do not you may have to pay a penalty.

Find out more about when you may have to pay a penalty and other information, including:

• how HMRC decides how much the penalty will be, which could be up to 100% of the grant amount
• when you will not have to pay a penalty
• how to appeal against a penalty"

callowman1980

Thanks.
My email says Nov 30th however,

Jeremy535897

That looks legitimate, although I can't speak from experience. I have never seen a scam email remotely as legitimate looking as that. The 20 October deadline I mentioned was the deadline for letting them know you have to repay. This assumes you have to repay, so that deadline is deemed to be met. You need to follow the instructions they give. Note there are no hyperlinks, and they are asking if you stopped trading. Those are points I made earlier:

"Some customers will also receive an email that will do one of the following:

• confirm their grant payment is being processed
• advise them to check their bank details before their grant can be processed
• ask them to confirm if they should not have received a grant as they stopped trading

The message you get will direct you to the GOV.UK website and will not include any hyperlinks."

You said you have not filed your 2019/20 return, because you did no work (except as an employee). You didn't do any small jobs for other people on a freelance basis at all? If not, then you have to repay the grant. Follow the instructions and you will see the first item in the search is about this matter. It says in the text below the link:

"Use this form if you received an email from HMRC, asking you to confirm if you’ve stopped trading so we can check if you were eligible for the grant."

sourcrates

Any and all email from HMRC will come from this no reply address -

no.reply@advice.hmrc.gov.uk.

callowman1980

Thats interesting because the email address has always bothered me. The address is
self.employed.income.support.scheme.@notifications.service.gov.uk

Jeremy535897

sourcrates said:

Any and all email from HMRC will come from this no reply address -

no.reply@advice.hmrc.gov.uk.

Info here -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/genuine-hmrc-contact-and-recognising-phishing-emails/genuine-hmrc-contact-and-recognising-phishing-emails#phone-email-and-letter-contacts-from-hmrc

I included this link in the first reply.

callowman1980

The no reply address is
hmrcnoreplysseis@hmrc.gov.uk