HMRC have published details of the scheme of penalties for any overclaimed or wrongly claimed Self Employment Income Support Scheme grants
Over payments must be notified to HMRC within 90 days of receipt of an SEISS grant.
Penalties can be charged up to 100% on the amount of SEISS grant overpaid, but so as long as over payments are settled by the end of January 2022, fines will not be enforced.
When deciding the amount of any penalty, HMRC will take account whether the taxpayer knew they were entitled to the SEISS grant when they received it, and when it became repayable or chargeable to tax because the individual’s circumstances changed.
HMRC cite the "deliberate and concealed" rule should someone have knowingly made a false claim and later failed to declare. This means they can charge a penalty of up to 100% on the amount of the SEISS grant that they were not entitled to receive or keep.
‘However if someone did not know they were not entitled to the grant when they received it, HMRC will only charge you a penalty if you have not repaid the grant by 31 January 2022.
HMRC is also warning taxpayers to be careful when making SEISS claims as there are a number of scams circulating with fraudsters trying to dupe the self employed into making erroneous claims to steal details. Check our recent article spam and fraudulent emails.
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