HMRC To Publish The Details Of Employers Claiming Under The Furlough Scheme From December

On Friday, 13^th November, the HM Treasury issued The Coronavirus Act 2020 Functions of her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) Direction which contained additional guidance on the extended furlough scheme. Included in the Treasury Direction is the condition that, when accessing the CJRS, employers accept that HMRC will publish information about their furlough claims on the internet.

As part of this condition, HMRC will be publishing the following details of claiming employers on their website from the beginning of December 2020 onwards:

• The name of the employer;
• A “reasonable indication” of the value of the furlough claim; and
• For companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), their company registration number.

Exceptions

HMRC will not, however, be publishing the names of employers that can show that the publication of this information would expose employees, or anyone they live with, to “serious risk of violence or intimidation”. As stated in the guidance, those employees include:

• “employers that are individuals – a relevant individual can be the employer themselves, or any employee of the employer
• employers that are companies – a relevant individual can be a director, officer or employee of that company
• employers that are partnerships – a relevant individual can be a partner, officer or employee of that partnership
• employers that are limited liability partnerships – a relevant individual can be a member or employee of that limited liability partnership
• trustees of a trust – a relevant individual can be a settlor, trustee or beneficiary of the trust”

In such cases where there is a risk of violence or intimidation to employees, employers will need to inform HMRC and provide them with supporting evidence. This evidence includes:

• Police incident references/numbers if an employer and/or employee has been threatened or attacked.
• Documentary proof of a threat or attack to the employer or employee, e.g. photos, or video or audio recordings.
• Evidence of potential disruption or targeting.

The Government has stated that additional information will be published in the coming weeks for employers on how to request that HMRC do not publish their details, which will provide them with sufficient time to do so prior to the initial publication date in December.

Many believe that the decision to make the above information public is an attempt to deter employers from applying under the scheme because of the risk of adverse publicity from it being known that they are accessing Government funds. It may also be a means to deter fraudulent claimants as they may feel more likely to get caught out once their details are published.