Company directors will be eligible for the Job Retention Bonus

As part of his plan for jobs, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that UK employers would receive a one-off bonus of £1,000 for each furloughed employee who is still employed as of January 31 2021.

Employers will be able to claim for employees they have previously claimed for under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), as long as the employe has remained in continuous employment through to January 31 2021. Employees claimed for must also earn at least £520 a month, on average, between November 2020 and January 31 2021.

Claims can be made for the bonus after an employer has filed their PAYE for January 2021 and payments will be processed from February 2021.

Employers are advised that they should ensure that:

• PAYE has been filed and paid, accurately and on-time inline with current obligations under the Real Time Information (RTI) for all employees;
• Enrolment has been maintained for PAYE online;
• Employers hold a UK bank account.

Payroll records must be kept up-to-date with accurate information. Any request from HMRC to provide missing employee data in respect of historic CJRS claims must be upheld. Any failure to do so could endanger an employer’s claim.

Employers can claim the JRB for all employees who meet the above conditions, which also includes office holders, company directors and agency workers, including those employed by umbrella companies.

Employers are reminded that this one-off payment of £1,000 per eligible employee is taxable, so the employer must include the whole amount as income when calculating the taxable profits for corporation tax or self-assessment.

Further guidance can be found here.