Self-employed individuals (including partnerships) who have overclaimed the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) must pay back the overpayment to HMRC. The rules for repayment state that you must tell HMRC if you were not eligible to have claimed the grant. There can also be penalties for not informing HMRC.
However, there are complications with the agent authorisation process for SEISS grants. This is because HMRC’s existing process – the 64-8 agent authorisation – was not designed to cover the support provided in response to coronavirus, such as SEISS grants, in which case the usual taxpayer confidentiality rules apply. For this reason, additional authorisation is required.
HMRC’s advice to agents states as follows, if you plan to contact us regarding your client’s SEISS grants, please speak to them and make sure relevant consent is in place where necessary and allow time for required authorisation to be processed by us.
The fifth and final SEISS grant was available for the period between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021. The last date for making a claim was 30 September 2021.
