Clawing back CJRS: Looking in the rear-view mirror

Key points

• The government estimates that 5% of the amounts paid under the CJRS have been overclaimed due to fraud or error costing the Treasury between £3.5bn and £5bn.
• Until February 2023 the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce recovered over £490m of overpaid Covid-19 employment scheme grants.
• HMRC’s compliance activities are leading to cases going before the First tier tribunals.
• The legislation that applies to HMRC’s ability to claw back overpaid CJRS claims is in FA 2020 Sch 16.
• Under FA 2020 Sch 16 overclaimed CJRS becomes a tax and HMRC can raise an assessment for the amount it considers to have been overclaimed.

The coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) announced on 20 March 2020 allowed employers to reclaim certain employee costs in the form of a government grant administered by...