[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback] | ||
First-tier Tribunal (Tax) |
||
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> First-tier Tribunal (Tax) >> Convergence Management Consultants Ltd v Revenue and Customs (INCOME TAX - CJRS - whether recoverable by HMRC - whether claim could be based on earnings "reasonably expected" to be paid - whether individual was a fixed rate employee - whether Fifth Direction changed the position - Six and Seventh Directions also considered) [2025] UKFTT 22 (TC) (09 January 2025) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKFTT/TC/2025/TC09394.html Cite as: [2025] UKFTT 22 (TC) |
[New search] [Contents list] [Printable PDF version] [Help]
Appeal reference: TC/2023/00793 |
TAX CHAMBER
Judgment Date: 9 January 2025 |
B e f o r e :
MR JAMES ROBERTSON
____________________
CONVERGENCE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS LTD |
Appellant |
|
- and - |
||
THE COMMISSIONERS FOR HER MAJESTY'S REVENUE AND CUSTOMS |
Respondents |
____________________
For the Appellant: Mr Khalid Mahmood, director of the Appellant
For the Respondents: Mr John McCabe, litigator of HM Revenue and Customs' Solicitor's Office
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
INCOME TAX – CJRS – whether recoverable by HMRC – whether claim could be based on earnings "reasonably expected" to be paid – whether individual was a fixed rate employee – whether Fifth Direction changed the position – Sixth and Seventh Directions also considered – appeal refused
Introduction
Evidence
(1) correspondence between the parties, and between the parties and the Tribunal;
(2) minutes of a meeting between Mr Mahmood and Mr Declan Douglas, HMRC's investigating officer;
(3) various internal printouts from HMRC's system;
(4) CMC's unaudited Financial Statements for the years ended June 2019, June 2020 (as amended), June 2021, June 2022 and June 2023;
(5) guidance issued by the government about the CJRS; and
(6) various statements from CMC's bank account.
Facts
(1) In October 2012 Mr Mahmood was paid £1,114.
(2) In November 2012 to June 2013 he was paid between £20 and £83 a month.
(3) He was not paid between July and September 2013.
(4) Between September and December 2013 he was paid £300 a month.
(5) He was not paid again until April 2015, when he was paid £1,007, followed by £848 for each of the following three months.
(6) The next payment of £2,166 was in June 2017.
(7) There was no subsequent payment until that recorded on the RTI return for April 2020, of £3,192.66 The same payment was recorded for the following two months; this increased to £3,220.80 in July 2020 and continued at that rate until September 2021.
(8) From October 2021 to July 2023 (the last month for which records were provided to us) no payment was made.
The legislative structure
"Signatures of Treasury Commissioners
(1) Section 1 of the Treasury Instruments (Signature) Act 1849 (instruments etc required to be signed by the Commissioners of the Treasury) has effect as if the reference to two or more of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury were to one or more of the Commissioners.
(2) For the purposes of that reference, a Minister of the Crown in the Treasury who is not a Commissioner of Her Majesty's Treasury is to be treated as if the Minister were a Commissioner of Her Majesty's Treasury."
"1. This direction applies to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
2. This direction requires Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to be responsible for the payment and management of amounts to be paid under the scheme set out in the Schedule to this direction (the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme).
3. This direction has effect for the duration of the scheme."
Fixed rate employee?
"A person is a fixed rate employee if:
(a) the person is an employee, or is treated as an employee for the purposes of CJRS by virtue of paragraph 35.3(a) (member of a limited liability partnership),
(b) the person is entitled under their contract to be paid an annual salary,
(c) the person is entitled under their contract to be paid that salary in respect of a number of hours in a year whether those hours are specified in or ascertained in accordance with their contract ("the basic hours"),
(d) the person is not entitled under their contract to a payment in respect of the basic hours other than an annual salary,
(e) the person is entitled under their contract to be paid, where practicable and regardless of the number of hours actually worked in a particular week or month in equal weekly, multiple of weeks or monthly instalments, and
(f) the basic hours worked in a salary period do not normally vary according to business, economic or agricultural seasonal considerations."
(1) the £40,000 salary on which he had based the CJRS claim was the sum he "reasonably expected" to receive; not on any contractual agreement between him and CMC; and
(2) it is also clear from the financial statements no sum was accrued in the periods before or after the CJRS, to reflect any liability of CMC to pay Mr Mahmood salary for those other months.
(3) Mr Mahmood therefore did not have any "legally enforceable agreement, understanding, scheme, transaction or series of transactions" such as to constitute a contractual entitlement to be paid an annual salary of £40,000 by CMC.
The First Direction
"The costs of employment in respect of which an employer may make a claim for payment under CJRS are costs which –
(a) relate to an employee –
(i) to whom the employer made a payment of earnings in the tax year 2019-20 which is shown in a return under Schedule A1 to the PAYE Regulations that is made on or before a day that is a relevant CJRS day,
(ii) in relation to whom the employer has not reported a date of cessation of employment on or before that date, and
(iii) who is a furloughed employee (see paragraph 6), and
(b) meets the relevant conditions in paragraphs 7.1 to 7.15 in relation to the furloughed employee."
"For the purposes of CJRS –
(a) a day is a relevant CJRS day if that day is –
(i) 28 February 2020, or
(ii) 19 March 2020."
"Subject as follows, on a claim by an employer for a payment under CJRS, the payment may reimburse-
(a) the gross amount of earnings paid or reasonably expected to be paid by the employer to an employee;
(b) any employer national insurance contributions liable to be paid by the employer arising from the payment of the gross amount;
(c) the amount allowable as a CJRS claimable pension contribution."
(1) Paragraph 5 begins "The costs of employment in respect of which an employer may make a claim for payment under CJRS" are those defined in that section. The conditions in that paragraph therefore have to be met for an valid claim to be made.
(2) Paragraph 8 begins "…on a claim by an employer for a payment under CJRS, the payment may reimburse". This paragraph therefore set out the amount which can be claimed once the conditions in paragraph 5 have been met.
Conclusion as to entitlement to CJRS under the First Direction?
(1) made a payment of earnings to the employee in the tax year 2019-20; and
(2) reported that payment on an RTI return which was made on or before 28 February or 19 March 2020; and
(3) met the other conditions referred to or set out in paragraph 5.
The Second to Fourth Directions
The Fifth Direction
(1) £2,500; and
(2) 80% of the employee's "reference salary".
Reference salary
"The reference salary of an employee must be determined in accordance with-
(a) paragraphs 13.1 to 13.8 and 15.1 to 15.7 if the employee is a fixed rate employee, and
(b) paragraphs 14.1 and 14.2 and 15.1 to 15.7 if the employee is not a fixed rate employee."
"The reference salary of a fixed rate employee is the amount payable to the employee in the latest salary period ending on or before the employee's relevant reference day…"
The reference day
"The relevant reference day in relation to an employee to whom paragraph 11.3 or paragraph 11.5 applies is 19 March 2020"
"The relevant reference day in relation to an employee to whom neither paragraph 11.3 nor paragraph 11.5 applies is 30 October 2020."
Paragraph 11.5
"The Fifth Direction applied to claims between 1 November 2020 and 31 January 2021. At paragraph 11 this sets out how to determine the employees' 'relevant reference day' for determining their reference salary. The Respondents submit that the employees' reference day is 19 March 2020, pursuant to para 11.2 as paragraph 11.5 applies."
"This paragraph applies to an employee if the employee's employer-
(a) has made a CJRS claim in relation to the employee by virtue of a relevant provision…"
"The following are relevant provisions for the purposes of paragraph 11.5(a)-
(a) paragraphs 9.1 to 11.3 of the first CJRS direction;
(b) paragraphs 9.1 to 11.3 of the second CJRS direction;
(c) paragraphs 37.1 to 39.3 of the third CJRS direction."
(1) Paragraphs 9.1 to 11.3 of the First and Second Directions related to:
(a) employers that have no qualifying PAYE scheme;
(b) successions to a business, where the new employer has a qualifying PAYE scheme; and
(c) PAYE scheme reorganisations.
(2) Paragraphs 37.1 to 39.3 of the Third CJRS Direction were identical to the above, other than that they added further provisions which applied where there was a succession to a business, but where the new employer was not a qualifying employer.
Paragraph 11.3
"This paragraph applies to an employee if-
(a) the employer making the CJRS claim made a payment ("the payment") to the employee,
(b) the payment was reported to HMRC pursuant to paragraph 22 of Schedule A1 to the PAYE Regulations in a return that the employer is required to deliver in accordance with regulations 67B or 67D of those Regulations, and
(c) the return mentioned in paragraph 11.3(b) was delivered to HMRC on or before 19 March 2020."
Mr Mahmood's reference salary
"The reference salary of an employee…whose relevant reference day is 19 March 2020 is the greater of-
(a) the average monthly (or daily or other appropriate pro-rata) amount payable to the employee in the period comprising the tax year 2019-20 (or, if less, the period of employment) before the period covered by a CJRS claim began, and
(b) the amount earned by the employee in the corresponding calendar period in the previous year."
"The reference salary of a fixed rate employee is the amount payable to the employee in the latest salary period ending on or before the employee's relevant reference day."
The CJRS payable for Mr Mahmood
(1) £2,500; and
(2) 80% of the employee's "reference salary".
The Sixth and Seventh Directions
"12.1 An employee is a Group 1 employee if a Group 1 payment has been made to the employee by a person who is a relevant employer.
12.2 A payment is a Group 1 payment if-
(a) the payment was reported to HMRC pursuant to paragraph 22 of Schedule A1 to the PAYE Regulations in a return that the relevant employer is required to deliver in accordance with regulations 67B or 67D of those Regulations, and
(b) the return mentioned in paragraph 12.2(a) was delivered to HMRC on or before 19 March 2020, and
(c) the payment is not an excluded payment[1]."
Clawback provisions
"(1) A recipient of an amount of a coronavirus support payment is liable to income tax under this paragraph if the recipient is not entitled to the amount in accordance with the scheme under which the payment was made.
…
(5) The amount of income tax chargeable under this paragraph is the amount equal to so much of the coronavirus support payment
(a) as the recipient is not entitled to, and
(b) as has not been repaid to the person who made the coronavirus support payment."
"(1) If an officer of Revenue and Customs considers (whether on the basis of information or documents obtained by virtue of the exercise of powers under Schedule 36 to FA 2008 or otherwise) that a person has received an amount of a coronavirus support payment to which the person is not entitled, the officer may make an assessment in the amount which ought in the officer's opinion to be charged under paragraph 8.
(2) An assessment under sub-paragraph (1) may be made at any time, but this is subject to sections 34 and 36 of TMA 1970.
(3) Parts 4 to 6 of TMA 1970 contain other provisions that are relevant to an assessment under sub-paragraph (1) (for example, section 31 makes provision about appeals and section 59B(6) makes provision about the time to pay income tax payable by virtue of an assessment)."
Overall conclusion and appeal rights
Note 1 Excluded payments are (broadly speaking) those made to employees whose employment had ceased, so this subparagraph is not relevant [Back]