21st December 2020
The nightmare before Christmas
Written by Helen Hargreaves
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The Prime Minister’s announcement on Saturday of further lockdown measures for London, the south-east and east of England, brought misery to many who found their family’s Christmas plans ruined. But it also brought frustration and extra work for many payroll practitioners if their business now finds itself under changed circumstances.
Christmas payrolls are a strain at the best of times, especially as many businesses pay staff early, but this year, with furlough payments now an integral part of many payrolls, and furlough grant applications to the end of December permitted from 17th December, payroll staff may now find that they need to amend the claims they have already made.
Following the announcement of new Tier 4 measures, some businesses that were remaining open have been ordered to close from Sunday 20th December. Where employees were scheduled and had already been paid to work, many now face furlough or curtailed hours, meaning those businesses who have already run their payroll and claimed their CJRS grant may now be wrong.
Payroll staff will now need to decide whether, as well as amending their payroll, they will reprocess or adjust their CJRS claims before HMRC’s deadline of 14th January.
