Miscellaneous amendments to tax credits regulations in consequence of the establishment of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
New statutory instrument
New regulations have been issued that make miscellaneous amendments to tax credits regulations in consequence of the establishment of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).
In force from 23 May 2020, the Tax Credits (Coronavirus, Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2020 (SI.No.534/2020) provide for amendments that -
allow working tax credit (WTC) entitlement to continue for up to eight weeks after the CJRS ends in order for claimants to establish their normal hours worked;
allow claimants impacted by the coronavirus pandemic but not participating in the CJRS or Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) to continue to satisfy the ‘hours normally worked’ and working ‘for’ or ‘in expectation of payment’ conditions of WTC;
prevent workers who are furloughed or treated as being furloughed from combining their furloughed hours with hours worked in extra jobs, where prior to COVID-19 they did not meet the eligibility conditions for the WTC ’30-hour element’;
temporarily increase the current one-month time limit to three months for claimants who are 'critical workers' to inform HMRC of changes of circumstances that affect entitlement to tax credits;
treat WTC claimants who volunteer under Emergency Volunteering Leave (EVL) provisions in the Coronavirus Act 2020 as if they were working their normal hours for the duration of the scheme; changes are also introduced to disregard expenses payments made under the EVL provisions as income for the purposes of calculating entitlement to tax credits; and
include payments received from the SEISS, the Small Business Grant Fund, the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund, the Fishing Industry Support schemes and the devolved administration equivalents - such as the Scottish Government’s Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund - as trading income for tax credits, which means that claimants do not have to carry out a separate calculation of their income but can use figures calculated for tax purposes.
