Tweeting could be enough to jeopardise a limited company director’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim, as the online activity could breach the scheme’s ‘no work’ condition.
Such is the alert from a top accountant, who says that on top of just snookering a claim for 80% of the company director’s salary, posting online could even lead to a fraud charge.
“Be really careful…because if you claim for it and you’re then posting on social media, HMRC could find out and that could be deemed as fraud,” said the accountant, Carrie Stokes.
“It’s a really grey area,” she continued in a v-log.
Fraud alert: Tweeting a single message on the social network could be enough to snooker a director’s CJRS claim and even trigger an HMRC enquiry, according to a top accountant.
“[Remember], statutory duties are really limited so if as a director you are still talking to customers; you are still talking to suppliers; you are still busting a gut to keep your business going; you’re still marketing your business to keep your business going and you’re still posting on social media; unfortunately you won’t be able to claim”.
The accountant was referring to HM Treasury specifying that statutory and administrative duties can be carried out by directors who furlough themselves, “so long as that is all they are doing,” Claer Barrett of the Financial Times clarified in a Q&A yesterday.
Sounding aware of the ‘grey area,’ the Treasury’s Ben Kerry said in a similar webinar: “One of the key conditions of the furlough scheme is that the employee is not allowed to work for the employer.
“But if you’re the owner-manager and you do have statutory duties, then you can continue to undertake those duties while being on furlough.”
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