Source · Select Committees · Treasury Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Paragraph: 39
The 2019–20 self-assessment income tax returns will provide the Government with additional information that could...
Recommendation
The 2019–20 self-assessment income tax returns will provide the Government with additional information that could allow it to provide support to those who need it but have so far not received it. We therefore strongly urge the Treasury to use the data from 2019–20 tax returns to help the newly self-employed who missed out on previous support. In order to ensure that this group is helped as quickly as possible, we recommend that HMRC prioritises work on analysing the 2019–20 tax returns.
Paragraph Reference:
39
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Under the CJRS and SEISS extensions, more people will be able to access support. The Government has moved the cut-off date on which employees need to be with their employer to be eligible for the CJRS. For claims starting on 1 May 2021, the cut-off date has been moved from 30 October 2020 to 2 March 2021. This means that those employed on 2 March 2021 are now eligible for CJRS if the other eligibility criteria are met. Based on early estimates, this means around 2.4 million more employees are potentially eligible for CJRS. The Government has also announced a major improvement in access to the self- employed scheme; as the deadline for 2019–20 tax returns has now passed, HMRC will use these tax returns for the fourth and fifth SEISS grants, provided they were submitted by 2 March. This means more than 600,000 people, many of whom became self-employed in 2019–20, may now be able to claim the fourth and fifth grants, bringing the total number of people who could be eligible to 3.7 million.