Employees did not qualify for furlough payments

The taxpayer employed two migrant workers who had visas entitling them to work in the UK from late February 2020. It made claims under the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) for these employees although they were not included in any real-time information (RTI) returns made before 19 March 2020 - the cut-off date for qualifying employment. It was however not disputed that the employees may have begun their employment before 19 March.

After a compliance check HMRC told the taxpayer that it had overclaimed in respect of those employees because they had not been included in the taxpayer’s RTI returns before 19 March.

The taxpayer appealed.

The First-tier Tribunal said the failure to include the employees in the RTI return meant that they were not eligible for the scheme.

On the taxpayer’s other arguments about reasonable excuse the tribunal said these were not relevant to the CJRS....