Michael Goodwin QC has co-authored a piece with Michelle Sloane of RPC writing for The Accountant Online. The authors examine HMRC and the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce recent ramping up of operations to identify and investigate any and all misuse of the government’s various coronavirus support schemes, particularly the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

Writing in The Accountant Online they comment:

“It is therefore critical that all businesses, many of whom may have implemented claims in haste when the scheme was first introduced, take the time now to carefully review any claims they have made under the furlough scheme to ensure they have acted in compliance with all the rules and can evidence this with a clear audit trail, should HMRC come knocking.

Any business that discovers that it has received, or retained, payments when it was not entitled to do so, needs to urgently consider what action it should take, including self-reporting to HMRC. Time spent doing so now could pay dividends in the months and even years to come, particularly as we watch the numbers of arrests increase.”

Read full piece here: [The Accountant Online]