SEISS Tax Return issues!

In the last week we’ve been hearing reports from our industry colleagues that HMRC’s system is corrupting figures for Self Employed Income Support Scheme grants (SEISS) as the related Tax Returns are submitted.

These initial reports of issues are across differing software packages, and across the country, suggesting the issue is at HMRC’s end.

HMRC have now accepted the issue exists, and have said ‘We are aware of a problem with the way that SEISS grants received in the 2020/21 tax year are being presented on the individual income API. Figures are being presented in pence rather than pounds.’

They went on to say ‘This is impacting individuals who use commercial software only (customers using our online portal, for example, are not affected). We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing. We advise that customers check the pre-populated SEISS entry and where necessary, delete the pre-populated figure and manually enter the correct amount. Our system will not process a return if the SEISS grant entry does not match our record of the amount paid.’

What does this mean for you?

If you’re a client of ours, we’ll take care of this for you!

We’ll complete additional checks on any Return that we submit where an SEISS claim has been included.

HMRC are attempting to update their systems and fix the fault, so we’re hoping this will be a reducing issue over the coming weeks.

If you claimed any of the SEISS grants, please make sure you send on to us any correspondence you receive from HMRC. Whilst we may have been appointed as agents, we don’t always see copies of all correspondence and in this situation it’s important that we do.

What does it mean for the future?

This really is quite worrying!

HMRC are pushing the next stage of Making Tax Digital (MTD), where there will be more taxpayers than ever submitting digital returns, yet this system appears to have been launched without enough testing.

• Will the new MTD systems be properly tested?
• Does the HMRC Software development team really have enough resources to cope with the ever-growing requirements?
• Will the increasing requirement for integrated data really be possible with any accuracy?

Another software issue raises all of these questions, to which we just don’t know the answers. As ever, we’ll keep you posted as we find out more around this issue, and any of the questions above too!

In the meantime, if you’re worried about accurately including SEISS grants in your Tax Return, please get in touch. If you’re not currently a client, why not let us make life less stressful by taking care of your personal tax affairs for you? Give us a call or drop us an email to have a chat.